Can one man have only bad ideas? Sen. Ted Cruz is testing it out.
In mid-November, he proposed a new bill that would “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.”
Unfortunately titled the "Safeguarding Honest Speech Act,” many people have pointed out that the Canadian-born Cruz’s “legal” name is not “Ted.” It isn’t “Theodore” or “Teddy,” either. It’s Rafael Edward Cruz. Says it right here on his birth certificate. According to the Texas senator’s own law, we should call him Rafael Cruz. His law would also likely allow us to call him Edward Cruz.
In a joint press conference with Tennessee’s version of George Santos and co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Andy Ogles, Cruz tried to cast his attack on preferred names and pronouns as a freedom-ish thing:
”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.”
When the San Antonio Express-News pointed out what a hypocrite Cruz was, he attacked them on the sinking antisemitic ship that is X (formerly Twitter), calling the newspaper “Lying hacks,” and saying they were purposefully misrepresenting his bill. “Show some respect for religious liberty and free speech and fix your dishonest headline,” he added.
While I am not positive about the legal loopholes in this proposed bill, maybe we can still call “Ted” Rafi (or Raffy) Cruz? Maybe Ed Cruz? Eddie Cruz? Maybe this is just a real roundabout way for R. Eddie Cruz to stop his fellow senators from calling him the Zodiac Killer?
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