Ted Cruz: Anti-LGBT Bathroom Laws Are ‘Completely Reasonable’

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz expressed support for North Carolina’s new bathroom law, which bars transgender people from using the facility that is consistent with their gender identity.

“The state has the power to pass their own laws to make a determination that men should not be going to the bathroom with little girls,” the Republican presidential hopeful told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd during a taping of a town hall meeting in Buffalo, New York, that aired on Thursday, April 14. “I’m not terribly excited about men being able to go alone into a bathroom with my daughters. And I think that is a perfectly reasonable determination for the people to make.”

Cruz and his wife, Heidi, are the parents of Caroline, 8, and Catherine, 5.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, stands with his wife Heidi Nelson Cruz and daughters Catherine Cruz, left, and Caroline Cruz, right, as he marks the start of his presidential campaign by giving the convocation address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on March 23, 2015. Jay Paul/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The House Bill 2 law, which passed on March 24, asserts that people must use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex. In protest of the new regulations, Bruce Springsteen cancelled his concert in North Carolina on April 8, and PayPal joined the backlash by halting plans to open a facility in Charlotte. And in a March 24 statement, the NBA suggested it might move its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, writing: “We are deeply concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect and do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host.”

Former NBA star Charles Barkley spoke out against the law in an interview with CNN. “As a black person, I’m against any form of discrimination — against whites, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, however you want to phrase it,” Barkley said on April 3. “I think the NBA should move the All-Star Game from Charlotte.”