GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz denounced Trump’s comments at an event in Maryland and in a statement.
“Donald Trump is no different from politically correct leftist elites,” Cruz said. “Today, he joined them in calling for grown men to be allowed to use little girls’ public restrooms. As the dad of young daughters, I dread what this will mean for our daughters – and for our sisters and our wives. It is a reckless policy that will endanger our loved ones,” said Cruz in a statement.
“This is not real tolerance. The left wants to force its belief system onto Americans across the country and silence people of faith in the public square. Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump is all too eager to join them,” Cruz said. “This simply confirms that the same man who favored partial-birth abortion and still supports public funding for Planned Parenthood will sacrifice principle on the altar of political correctness. Trump will not defeat political correctness. Today he bowed to it.”
The Trump comments came just two days after a three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a high-school girl identifying as a boy could sue Gloucester County, Virginia, schools for discrimination since the U.S. Department of Education instructs students to be allowed to use facilities consistent with their gender identity and not necessarily their biological sex. Refusal to accommodate that request is considered a violation of Title IX.
The 4th Circuit also covers North Carolina. But while LGBT activists are hailing the decision as a death blow against the North Carolina law, Forest said it’s no such thing.
“It really wasn’t necessarily a ruling. This is one of those places where the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign and the other leftists out there are claiming victory on something that’s not a complete victory yet,” Forest said. “What they did was send that back down to the lower court again to make a decision on it.”
He said running to a cherry-picked panel of liberal judges is standard operation procedure for liberals.
“The left can’t win going through the legislative process and having the legislature vote on things and have a representative republic the way we’re supposed to,” Forest said. “They went to the courts.”
Forest also has no confidence in winning in the courts, citing the Supreme Court’s flip-flop on marriage. In 2013, the high court struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, saying marriage should be defined by the states. Two years later, the justices ruled a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and state laws were unconstitutional.
Also of great frustration to Forest is the complete rejection of “reasonable accommodation” provisions for people identifying as transgendered. He said the legislation specifically calls for individual occupancy restrooms so anyone can feel at ease there. But activists and even candidates like Trump reject that as another form of discrimination.
“The left and these folks with the Human Rights Campaign, they’re like a bunch of playground bullies,” Forest said. “They don’t want reasonable accommodation. They want a winner-takes-all approach. The winner-takes-all approach says this small minority of folks had better win, or we’re coming after you.”
Forest said the Human Rights Campaign in particular looks to start fights in these situations. He said it looks for “radical” mayors like Jennifer Roberts and urges them to take action on LGBT issues, vowing to back them up and relentlessly attack any opponents. Forest said the bullying also extends to businesses that don’t even know what’s in the law, but they’re afraid to challenge the Human Rights Campaign.