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Advocates criticized the breathtaking hypocrisy of Cruz’s Safeguarding Honest Speech Act for its potential harm to the LGBTQ+ community and pointed out the irony in his own name choice.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, legally named Rafael Edward Cruz, has introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate titled the Safeguarding Honest Speech Act. The legislation proposes prohibiting federal funds from enforcing policies requiring federal employees to use preferred pronouns or names other than an individual’s legal name.
The Safeguarding Honest Speech Act states that the bill is "to prohibit the use of funds to implement, administer, or enforce measures requiring certain employees to refer to an individual by the preferred pronouns of such individual or a name other than the legal name of such individual, and for other purposes."
Cruz introduced the legislation along with U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee.
"Forcing anyone to use pronouns that don’t accord with a person’s biological sex is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court held, ‘If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’ The government has no business compelling anyone to use pronouns that contradict biological reality,” Cruz said in a joint-press release about the bill on November 17.
Ogles added: “Can you imagine getting reprimanded or fired from your job for not using an individual’s ‘preferred pronouns’? Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Biden regime has imposed in its latest guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services. The radical Left is actively coercing the speech of individuals – all in service of a delusional woke agenda. The American people shouldn’t be asked by their government to subsidize violations of the Constitution of the United States."
This move by Cruz, who is widely known by a nickname for his middle name, “Ted,” rather than his legal first or middle name, Rafael Edward, has sparked a debate not only about the bill’s potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community but also about the perceived irony in the senator’s personal name usage. Critics, including advocacy groups and members of the LGBTQ+ community, also view the bill as regressive in recognizing and respecting gender identity in federal workplaces.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, addressed the bill’s implications and the inconsistency in Cruz’s name choice in a statement to The Advocate.
“Anti-LGBTQ extremists attempting to erase trans people by purposely ignoring their pronouns, gender, and authentic name are nothing new. In fact, we even have names for these insidious acts: misgendering and deadnaming. This latest attempt by Senator Cruz, who does not go by his own legal name, to prohibit the federal government, the nation’s largest employer, from respecting employees’ authentic name and pronouns, is not only dangerous and demeaning, it’s hypocritical,” Ellis said.
Ellis’s statement highlights the severe effects of misgendering and deadnaming, practices that show disrespect for a transgender person’s gender identity and can lead to psychological distress, discrimination, and violence. This perspective from GLAAD emphasizes the potential harm of the bill and the critical nature of its implications.
Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, also criticized the bill. He focused on the contrast between Cruz’s personal name choice and the bill’s emphasis on legal names.
“The irony of Ted Cruz, who is known by his chosen nickname, attempting to use the government to police the names that others use is lost on no one. This bill is a shameful attempt to control others and will be rejected,” Wolf said.
Cruz’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Advocate.
A focal point of the Safeguarding Honest Speech Act is deadnaming, a practice central to the debate. Deadnaming, the act of referring to a transgender person by their former name without their consent, is not only an invasion of privacy but also undermines the individual’s true, authentic identity. Not only can deadnaming cause emotional distress, but deadnaming can expose transgender people to discrimination and violence, compromising their safety and well-being.
When it comes to pronoun use, the Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that transgender and nonbinary youth who had their pronouns respected attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not. This starkly illustrates the critical importance of respecting an individual’s chosen name and pronouns, underscoring the potentially harmful consequences of legislation like Cruz’s bill.
The legislation is not expected to go anywhere under Democratic control of the Senate.
