A transgender man is planning to sue Texas senator Ted Cruz over an anti-trans attack advert.

Wrestler Mack Beggs spoke out against an ad used by Republican Cruz who is up for re-election next week.

Showing a picture of Beggs during a high-school wrestling bout in 2018, the ad claims that Cruz’s Democratic rival for the seat, Colin Allred, “failed to protect women’s sports” by supporting “boys competing with girls.”

Even though he wanted to wrestle against boys, Beggs had to go up against girls because of a University Interscholastic League regulation which forced him to compete in the category that corresponded to the sex listed on his birth certificate.

Beggs told Lonestar Live he intended to sue over his appearance in the ad, for which, he said, he had not granted Cruz’s campaign permission.

“I’m definitely going to take legal action,” he said. “It’s a false narrative and defamation. 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 what y’all asked for.”

Transgender participation in sporting events has become an increasingly hot topic for Republicans, many of whom are using it as part of election campaigns, despite evidence showing it’s not a good tactic.

Beggs, who has been the target of anti-trans rhetoric from Republicans and right-wing transphobes before, highlighted that the ad implies that he is either a cisgender man or a transgender woman.

Republicans were doing this deliberately and “spinning the narrative to continue to push the anti-trans agenda,” he continued. “My name was brought up 20 times in the [state] senate when it came to first enacting the anti-trans athlete bills in 2017. So, they are very much aware of what they’re doing.

“If we continue to fight for marginalised groups as a whole, then myself and everybody in my community will win. 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 I’m not.”

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