It was recently revealed that Ted Cruz’s own daughter was bisexual, and that she had recently gone into critical condition following an attempt to commit suicide or self harm. Cruz has recently waxed poetic about Uganda’s most recent homophobic laws—which can lead to death sentences.
I’m response to his most recent revelation I have one response: I am not surprised and utterly feel no sympathy. Cruz himself—as a member of the legislature for countless years—has done nothing but target women and queer individuals time and time again. Additionally this pattern is nothing new, and I have two prime examples.
Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon were born in 1919 and 1926 respectively. The two were cousins to the Queen and Princess Margaret—yet the two has serious intellectual disabilities. They were both institutionalized by their mother—Lady Elizabeth—at Earlswood Hospital. Lady Elizabeth later reported that the two had died: Nerissa in 1940 and Katherine in 1961. It was later discovered that Lady Elizabeth had lied. Nerissa had died in 1986, with only the Earlswood staff at her funeral, and Katherine was still alive. In fact—Nerissa’s grave had only been marked with a serial number. Katherine would join her sister in 2014. In their entire time at Earlswood the two received no visitors, letters, or cards from any of their family.
While Nerissa and Katherine were locked away at Earlswood, Rosemary Kennedy—the younger sister of JFK—was plagued with violent mood swings and seizures. After being in a convent school in DC for some time her father—Senator Joseph Kennedy Sr—arranged for a lobotomy in 1941, only informing his wife after the surgery. The lobotomy left her incontinent and unable to walk or talk. Rosemary was immediately institutionalized. Neither of her parents would visit her and her siblings would only learn of her lobotomy and where she was institutionalized in 1961.
All of this to say this: the people in power and privilege have *records*. Records of abusing their own children and family. Never once should any oppressed person consider interacting with them—whether to comfort them or “compromise” with them on the political stage.
Our efforts should be actual targeted towards those who really need help: the abused—from on a national scale to those who have been intimately hurt by their bigotry.
