The Dallas Observer — a digital site with a weekly print edition — published an item Tuesday hilariously claiming two ads (here and here) by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) were misleading in claims about his Democratic opponent and Congressman Colin Allred’s (D-TX) support for men being allowed in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports.
The piece broke down in two parts. The first fixated on an ad with the announcer stating “Colin Allred opposed protecting women’s sports,” and “Colin Allred voted to allow boys in girls’ sports.”
In a section entitled “THE FACTS,” news editor Kelly Dearmore noted these claims were made with footnotes below for a House Republican-led bill in 2023:
In the commercial, House Resolution 734 from 2023 is noted under both of these claims. Named “The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023,” HR 734 passed the House of Representatives along a party line vote of 219 Republican “yeas” to 203 Democratic “nays.” The bill aimed to place a ban on transgender students from participating on a team based on their current gender identity.
Of course, he noted this “was roundly opposed by Democratic officials and progressive advocacy groups,” but gave a cartoonish explanation for why. He argued it failed to “tak[e] into account competitive levels, grade levels or particular sports” and that President Biden would veto it.
After a Hummer-sized paragraph touting the White House statement opposing it on the grounds of it exacerbating “a nationwide mental health crisis” for “transgender youth” and thus push many already “seriously consider[ing] suicide.”
Ah, yes. The tiresome excuse of supporting men taking over women’s sports out of a fear of mass suicides.
But, wait, there was more. Dearmore did what liberal journalists so often do in explaining away far left position in being weirdly obtuse: “Allred hasn’t stated on the record that he does not want to protect women’s sports or that he wants to allow boys into girls sports. He voted against HR 734 and its sweeping ban, something that more than 200 other Democrats in the U.S. House did as well.”
The second part unfolded in the same manner. An ad’s narrator said “Colin Allred voted to allow boys in girls’ bathrooms,” and “Colin Allred voted to allow boys in girls’ locker rooms.”
As per our friends at National Review, the Equality Act would have, in fact, done just that, but Dearmore chose not to mention that.
Dearmore acknowledged the Cruz ad was bolstered by a footnote of Allred’s yes vote for the House Democrat-shepherded Equality Act in 2021.
He again gave a long runway for a charitable reading of the bill:
“This bill prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system,” reads a summary of the act on Congress’s official website. “Specifically, the bill defines and includes sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation.”
Conservatives decried the passage as an attack on religious freedom and far too sweeping in favor of transgender citizens.
Earth to Dearmore: What do you think “public accommodations and facilities” mean?
Noting Allred was “an original co-sponsor,” Dearmore added Allred said in a statement he supported the bill not to put men in girls’ bathrooms, changing rooms, and sports, but rather so that “no American” could “be discriminated against because of who they are or who they love” and “LGBTQ Americans” being able to “live” with “protections under federal law.”
What Dearmore conveniently left out was Allred’s support of The Transgender Bill of Rights resolution, which would give transgender students the right to choose without any discussion the locker room and teams of their choosing.
Dearmore saved the dumbest line for last:
In short, Allred didn’t vote to “allow boys into girls’ sports” or to “allow boys into girls’ locker rooms,” but rather to secure civil rights protections for LGBTQ citizens, according to his on-record statements regarding the bill.
Is Dearmore sore? He must be from the grossly painful contortions he twisted himself into for this logic to pan out.
