Two anti-trans ads by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz feature a photo of two Oregon high school athletes without permission from the minors’ families, prompting one school district to ask Thursday for the ads to be pulled.
The videos are part of Cruz’s multi-million dollar campaign to hold onto his Senate seat representing Texas in the face of a challenge from Democrat Colin Allred. Both of the ads denounce Allred’s support for trans women’s right to access women’s spaces. The ads say Allred voted for “boys in girls’ sports” and briefly show an image of two female student athletes — neither of whom are trans — at an Oregon track meet.
The Oregon students and their families only learned of the ads from reporting by The Hill Thursday, although one ad has been out on YouTube since Sept. 16 and the other since Oct. 7. When the national media outlet contacted the Beaverton School District, where one of the student athletes studies, the district promptly asked the Cruz campaign to pull the ad from all distribution platforms immediately.
“The family nor the school or school district ever gave permission for this photo to be used,” the district wrote to Cruz’s campaign. “In addition, the ad implies that at least one of the athletes in this photo is transgender. Please know that both of these athletes were born female.”
The picture used in Cruz’s ads was taken from a Central Oregon Daily News story about the participation of a transgender student in the April meet. The Daily News did not respond to a request for comment about whether it authorized use of its image.
The Cruz campaign has not yet responded to Beaverton School District’s request, according to a district representative.
The Cruz campaign did not reply to questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive about whether it had permission to use the image or plans to discontinue or modify the ad, nor did it address a question about whether the ad falsely implies that a student or students shown are trans. In a short statement, a Cruz spokesperson explained that “the picture features a female athlete who spoke out against boys playing in girls’ sports after participating in a track meet where a biological male beat female athletes and impacted individual and team medal results.”
That athlete is a former Summit High School student who spoke out against the inclusion of a transgender athlete at the April competition in the Central Oregon Daily News piece. In an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive Friday, the student athlete, who is now homeschooled, said that while she and her family were not asked for permission ahead of time, she doesn’t mind the use of her image in Cruz’s ad.
“I support what he’s talking about and what he’s standing for,” she said.
She did say, however, that she felt the ad could be falsely understood to suggest that either she or the other student athlete is trans.
Cruz, who won election to the Senate in 2012 and is in a tight race with Allred to maintain his seat, has consistently opposed trans and gay rights.
In 2021, he co-sponsored a bill that would have banned transgender women and girls from athletic programs receiving federal funds. And last year, he introduced a bill that would have prohibited using federal funds to enforce rules for federal employees about using people’s preferred names and pronouns.
In a debate this month, Cruz blasted Allred for supporting the Equality Act, a bill which would have banned discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in public places, education and employment. The senator has also repeatedly criticized Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case that required all states to recognize same-sex marriage.
— Aviva Bechky covers politics and education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. They can be reached at abechky@oregonian.com or on X at @avivabechky.
Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.