Allred: "I'm a dad. I'm also a Christian... I don't want boys playing girls' sports"

[onandup]

A Texas Democratic congressman running to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has embraced far-right language around gender identity in a new ad, raising eyebrows, including at the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy group, which endorsed him earlier this year. Rep. Colin Allred, who has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, finds himself on the defensive as Cruz’s campaign bombards Texas voters with attack ads centered on fear of transgender people, particularly athletes.

Cruz’s campaign has heavily focused on transgender people’s participation in youth sports, airing multiple attack ads during prime-time slots, including NFL games, the Houston Chronicle reports. These ads avoid directly addressing transgender youth, instead accusing Allred of supporting policies that undermine fairness in sports, particularly for cisgender women. In one super PAC ad, a hulking figure wearing an “Allred” jersey tackles a young girl on a football field, reinforcing the portrayal that his support for inclusive policies harms women in sports.

On Friday, Allred released an ad attempting to blunt the impact of Cruz’s messaging by adopting more conservative talking points. “I’m a dad. I’m also a Christian. My faith has taught me that all kids are God’s kids,” Allred says in the ad. “So let me be clear. I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports or any of this ridiculous stuff that Ted Cruz is saying.”

https://www.advocate.com/election/colin-allred-transphobia-ted-cruz#rebelltitem1

[Deuxcents]

1. I think the title to this thread is misleading

[FreeState]

5. It's word for word the ad text

On Friday, Allred released an ad attempting to blunt the impact of Cruz’s messaging by adopting more conservative talking points. “I’m a dad. I’m also a Christian. My faith has taught me that all kids are God’s kids,” Allred says in the ad. “So let me be clear. I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports or any of this ridiculous stuff that Ted Cruz is saying.”

[Skittles]

2. I detest people talking about their "faith"

ugh

[LostOne4Ever]

3. So fucking disappointing

And seeing as trans issues rank dead last even to conservatives it is a futile capitulation to bigots!

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/tx-dem-collin-allred-responds-to




Of course he did this right after I donated to him too. That said, Brown in Ohio is doing the same thing.

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/transgender-biological-men-browns

[Skittles]

7. it is indeed

he should have taken the opportunity to point how how repukes use vulnerable folk as targets because fear and hatred is all they have but instead, Allred essentially validates such bullying -

[Jack Valentino]

8. Allred is running in Texas, and Brown is running in Ohio...

What matters the most is who will control the United States Senate after the election---

less so than what one politician or another may feel forced to say on the campaign trail while running in a red state...


If it ever came down to actual relevant votes in the US Senate, I think either one would vote with our side of the issue.

[LostOne4Ever]

15. That is why I am still donating and supporting Allred

But he is giving a free win away to the Republicans and hurting the trans community at the same time doing this!

[Jack Valentino]

16. I don't disagree--- but this is still the campaign in Texas...

if he actually wins, I doubt you will hear any more such talk from him.

He has to WIN, in fucking TEXAS, before he can do any actual good.

[LeftInTX]

22. Do you live in Texas? Do you know that we have "boys in the girls' bathroom" commercials ad nauseum here?

From the Cruz campaign.

Actually they're mostly boys playing girls' sports commercials.

[LostOne4Ever]

27. Yes I do.

I’m in the Permian Region.

Trump flags everywhere. The people who those ads appeal to. That said, those people were never going to vote Allred.

Also, Cruz is putting up ads attacking trans military members. Seems like Allred could easily have exploited this and accused Cruz of trying to take proven and medically necessary healthcare from our military. I think THAT would have been a good response!

[BOSSHOG]

4. Vlad Putin owns trump

And Ted is concerned about fairness in sports offering no investigation into the patriots cheating with Tom Brady. Cmon Ted, that’s a chip shot in the lane of cowboys and Texans. Hey Ted when ya gonna mention that ALLRED isn’t WHITE?

[blogslug]

6. Colin Allred Campaign Contact Information

Last edited Mon Oct 14, 2024, 10:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Tell him to knock it off with this shameful anti-trans talk:

[e-mail]

PO Box 601631
Dallas, TX 75360

[Jack Valentino]

11. Perhaps you prefer what Cruz has said on that issue??

[blogslug]

20. I am voting in Texas for Colin Allred

are you?

[Jack Valentino]

21. I would if I lived in Texas.

Thanks. Sorry...

[blogslug]

23. It's fine

I can support a candidate and disagree with them simultaneously.

[Jack Valentino]

29. I think your criticism of Allred's statement on this issue is to accept GQP framing of it---

He said that he did not support 'boys' competing against 'girls' in sports--
is that right? I am not mis-understanding what he said, am I?

Well, I don't think ANY liberal or Democrat thinks that girls or women should have to compete against men or boys in sports....

However, those people who wish to compete in girls sports almost ALL now self- "identify" as girls or women, don't they?
And the vast majority of them have taken medical steps to become, in scientific fact, the sex with whom they identify, haven't they?


So to criticize Allred for the statement which he made, is to agree with Republican framing of the trans issue---

-- that the sex you are born with, is the sex that you remain, no matter what sex you identify with, and no matter what medical steps you have taken to change the facts of birth.

In that light, I don't see Allred's statement as any attack against trans, but rather in support of it.

(EXCEPT--- there was no need to bring Religion into it! but fucking Texas false Christians listening...)

[blogslug]

31. Look, I'm tired

I don't have the spoons to get into this with you.

Goodnight.

[Jack Valentino]

32. Just a suggestion on another possibility, I don't want to 'get into spoons' either--

except I need to wash mine... Goodnight to you as well!

[Skittles]

34. there's no question Cruz is a piece of shit

but there's no need for Allred to suck up to bigots

[ananda]

9. Well, think of it this way.

It's flawed but Democratic Allred

or

ugly, nasty, horrible in every way Cruz.

Just sayin'

[Initech]

10. WTAF! Stop reading conspiracy theory bullshit!

Fuck Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson to the hottest circle of hell.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. I keep on seeing all sorts of complaints like this.

So are transgender people REALLY taking over all the girls' sports?

[Initech]

24. It's literally like 0.00001% of a problem.

But the stupid right wing echo chamber takes an issue like that and amplifies it to the idiots that listen to that bullshit.

[Jack Valentino]

30. Oh Yes! BOTH of them!!!!

LMAO

[MineralMan]

36. Of course they're not.

It's a bogeyman sort of issue. It's not happening with any frequency at all. It's just not a thing, in reality. But, you know "WHAT IF BOYS WENT INTO GIRL'S BATHROOMS?" Sounds ominous, doesn't it? They're not doing that, either. Some schools have gender neutral bathrooms, I guess, but those aren't used much, either.

It's bullshit used to fire up assholes.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

37. I get drinks at a place that has a wonderfully

gender neutral bathroom. There's a large open area, sinks on one side, cubicles with locking doors on the other. It's completely comfortable. Quite unlike the time about a decade ago when I walked into the ladies' room and there was a man standing at the sink combing his hair. I told him to leave.

[MineralMan]

39. It's all what you become accustomed to, I guess.

in the early 70s, when I went back to college, I lived in a huge old 3-story house with a bunch of other people. Who lived there changed frequently. We called it the Osos Street commune.

Like many big old houses, it had a shortage of bathrooms, and we had no shortage of people needing them. So, it was really a free-for-all situation. I was surprised at how quickly everyone got used to sharing bathroom space with whoever else showed up to use it. Similar stuff happened throughout that house, and seeing someone going from one room to another naked was just a normal part of the living situation.

Seems odd to me now, but just didn't matter much to any of us then.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

40. Well, that's extremely different from a normal public bathroom.

My son went to Reed College for a year in 2001, and at that time the dorm he was assigned did not have separate male and female floors. When I first went to college in 1965, entire dorms were only male or female.

[MineralMan]

41. Yes, it was the same when I first went, in 1963.

Much has changed.

My point is that how people feel about stuff like that is based on their experiences. You mentioned a large gender-neutral bathroom somewhere. It was designed to provide privacy where it was needed, but the rest was for common use by everyone.

It all depends on how things are designed and who is using them. In that huge old house, the situation was what it was, so you adapted to it if you lived there. It didn't take long for new occupants to become accustomed to the situation, either.

[LeftInTX]

42. We used to have what I thought was a guy cleaning the women's locker at the gym. Then one day someone said, "It's a she"

[Takket]

13. before we all fillet Allred, what is his context of this?

Is he responding to an exaggeration and anti-trans ad from Cruz that is accusing him of allowing cisgender males to play in girls sports.... or is he saying that transgender females should not be allowed in girls sports? Because those are not the same thing.

[Lulu KC]

18. Yes--what I thought

I interpreted his comment as the former, but now second-guessing that. It seemed to me like he was trying to educate.

[Lulu KC]

19. I dug a little

(I am not paying a lot of attention to this race so had to start somewhere.)

Where the jabs began: https://www.khou.com/article/news/verify/colin-allred-voting-history-boys-girls/285-ad713e88-bb5e-4378-9901-71ba5674a837

^^Allred voted along party lines here and I see nothing disturbing in his votes on these issues. TC is taking it and turning it into his inflammatory accusations, playing on fear, as usual.

I still find Allred's comment kind of hard to understand, though I certainly understand why The Advocate is wary. Still, I think he may have intentionally made it a little murky to get to the punch line, which is that Ted Cruz has to go.

Allred has not always voted along party lines so he's not afraid to be different, but he did take a firmer stand on those votes.

[Jack Valentino]

33. Are there even any trans people, who think that 'girls' should have to compete against 'boys'

in girl's sports?

And are there even ANY people who identify as 'boys', trying to compete against girls in women's sports???


Seems to me that Allred was addressing GQP 'framing' on this issue, and debunking it.

The GQP's framing of the issue is that "whichever sex you were born, that sex you remain"---
but we know that this is not necessarily nor scientifically true, any more

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. Good point.

Thank you, because I wouldn't have quite known the difference.

[Johnny2X2X]

14. So?

It’s not an issue. Boys playing girls sports is a distraction. It’s not a problem 99% of the time. The 1% of the time it might be is handled on a case by case basis.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. Trans girls are girls so he has nothing to worry about, right?

Or is he talking about the extremely rare Title IX incidents that allows boys to play on girls teams if there isn't a comparable boys team? Since that's federal law, he's got nothing to argue. Huh, it is a mystery.

[In It to Win It]

25. Be mad after the election.

[Initech]

38. Yeah we have to flush Ted Cruz down the Fox News sewer he came from.

This is just outrage bait!

[Iggo]

26. Trying to find what Jeebus said about sports .

Comin’ up empty.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

28. Awww,

we hardly knew ye.