On January 7, 2022, Texas senator Ted Cruz’s daughter, Caroline Cruz come out on social media as bisexual, however, social media and news websites quickly made immense focus on this subject, causing the 13-year-old to switch her account to private.

Cruz had shared on her TikTok profile how life is living with a senator as a father, stating; “Some of the good things are we get candy and gifts in the mail. We also get to travel sometimes.”

A great portion of the public regards the older Cruz as homophobic. After Caroline’s TikTok bio gained attention for stating she is bi, questions quickly arose from followers and from the general public. 

The pressure for Cruz became too much, and what was supposed to be a calm and slow coming out to her followers, became a trending story for the world. The situation as a whole is saddening, especially to her followers and supporters, who were the main focus of  Cruz’s coming out.

It is unclear if Cruz has any mental issues, and supporters of the teenager worry that the added pressure of coming out and her bio status going viral may, in fact, create unwanted issues. This situation would be traumatizing to anyone– especially an unsuspecting middle schooler. 

In journalism, reporters are always supposed to provide people with the facts, while also remaining respectful, truthful, and reliable to both their readers, and source material, but in this case, however, journalists are violating their own ethics. It is just as important to respect one’s privacy and diversity of information, but these people went straight for Cruz when she had come out. 

The main reason for this is how they know what topics will catch people’s attention, especially when the senator, who is homophobic’s daughter comes out as bi, they know this will catch the attention of millions. However, this was not how Ms. Cruz wanted this news to be shown, she had only wanted to come out to her followers and supporters, rather than the entire United States and then some. 

One can argue how distasteful their actions as journalists are, and one could argue they are just doing their job. I say they should be ashamed of themselves, for not thinking about Cruz firsthand, and instead, violating her privacy, comfort, and potentially her mental health. 

Keep in mind, Cruz is only a minor, and when dealing with a wave of people wanting to know something private, this could be immensely traumatizing and embarrassing to this poor member of society. It’s already difficult to come out to the people you know, but when you are bombarded with thousands of questions from strangers online, that’s a whole new level of stress and anxiety on its own.