Ted Cruz used a trans wrestler in an attack ad without permission. Now, Mack Beggs is taking legal action

The transgender athlete Ted Cruz maliciously and incorrectly used in an attack ad has vowed to take legal action against the senator, accusing him of "defamation."

Mack Beggs, a transgender man, was featured in an advertisement as part of Cruz’s multi-million re-election campaign against Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. The video claimed that Allred "failed to protect women’s sports, supporting boys competing with girls" while showing a picture of Beggs' 2018 victory at the Texas University Interscholastic League women’s wrestling state championship.

Beggs has since spoken out against the ad, stating that not only did Cruz not get his permission to use his image in the video, but that the ad failed to mention that he was forced to compete against women because the state's laws prevented him from competing against boys, as he was listed as female on his certificate.

“I’m definitely going to take legal action. It’s a false narrative and defamation,” Beggs told Lonestar Live. “The Republican Party messed up and they know what they’re doing. You can’t just go around throwing around false narratives when this is literally what y’all asked for.”

Beggs noted that the ads imply that he is either a cisgender man or a transgender woman, neither of which are accurate, and that he believes Republicans "are spinning the narrative to continue to push the anti-trans agenda.”

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“My name was brought up 20 times in the [state] Senate when it came to first enacting the anti-trans athlete bills back in 2017. So, I think they are very much aware of what they’re doing," he added.

Beggs was also featured on a mailer that went out to Texas voters featuring identical false claims. Cruz has also been threatened with legal action by an Oregon school district that accused him of using an image of two cisgender minor girls without permission, calling them “biological men” who are competing unfairly in women’s sports.

Beggs noted that "it’s not just me who is being attacked or trans athletes or trans individuals in general,” but also cisgender girls such as the Oregon students or cisgender women of color such as Imane Khelif.

“That’s more important to me than me being trans,” Beggs said. “I think that if we continue to fight for marginalized groups as a whole, then myself and everybody in my community will as well win this fight.”

“I’m not afraid of my name being known,” he continued. “I’m not afraid of my face being plastered everywhere. What I don’t appreciate is my story being told falsely and me being painted out to be someone that I’m not.”