Cruz tells gay New Yorker 'religious liberty' all he needs https://t.co/Z7MVOz11mS
— Washington Blade (@WashBlade) April 19, 2016
Ted Cruz says LGBT community is "waging jihad" on America, although the LGBT community says it's "just trying to use the bathroom"
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) April 18, 2016
A gay “lifelong Republican” asked Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Monday how he would fight to protect the rights of his family from so-called “religious liberty” laws that allow for discrimination against LGBT people…. “I’ve noticed a lot of religious freedom laws and somewhat institutionalized discrimination laws happening around the country,” restaurant owner Todd Calogne explained to Cruz during a forum on ABC’s Good Morning America. “What would you as president do to protect me and my husband?”…. Cruz suggested that Calogne had no reason to worry because “religious liberty is something that protects everyone of us.”…. “Religious liberty, it applies to Jews, it applies to Christians, it applies to Muslims, it applies to atheists,” Cruz said. “And all of us, we want to live in a world where we don’t have the government dictating our beliefs, dictating how we live. We have a right to live according to our faith, according to our conscience.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yasmina-blackburn/where-was-ted-cruz-radicalizedb9604930.html
I could, and perhaps should, begin by addressing the incongruity of the phrase “gay lifelong Republican.” It’s a legitimate discussion on something approaching self-loathing looking for a place to happen…but that’s not my raison d’ etre here.
I’m far more concerned with Calogne’s legitimate and eminently reasonable question…one that Cruz never came close to answering. While he responded by employing platitudes and high-minded language about “religious liberty,” I think Calogne’s question deserved a direct and honest answer- two things Cruz appears congenitally incapable of, particularly when it comes to LGBT rights.
In a time when red states appear to be furiously racing another in an effort to prove the superiority of their moralizing, hyper-religious, anti-LGBT bona fides, asking a candidate how he’d protect an American’s civil rights is an inquiry worthy of a forthright answer. Calogne, as I suspect he was well aware, never had any hope of getting an honest response from Cruz.
Blogger Andy Towle pointed out that “Cruz dodged the question” from the gay restaurant owner.
“So pizza show owner Calogne was left hanging - his question wasn’t answered, because there is NOTHING Cruz will do to protect him and his husband. Nothing,” Towle wrote. “And that, of course, leaves everyone with another question: Todd, why the hell are you voting Republican?”
I applaud Calogne for having the courage to ask Cruz a question that wasn’t a softball tossed gently down the middle of the plate. The Senator’s (lack of a legitimate and reasonable) answer should come as a surprise to no one. He’d do exactly nothing to protect Calogne and his husband. Cruz needs their votes to reach his goal of sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office, but he’d undoubtedly kick them to the curb the moment their utility is exhausted. Anyone who believes otherwise is living in a fantasy world populated by unicorns.
For LGBT Americans, Ted Cruz poses a far bigger threat to their rights that either Donald Trump or John Kasich…not that either of those culture warriors could be credibly referred to as “gay-friendly.”
The truth is that in the end, Cruz would do nothing to protect Calogne or any other LGBT American. Cruz’s path to power lies in his base of hyper-Christian, intolerant zealots who couldn’t lead a Christ-like life if Mary Magdalene showed up with an instruction manual, a flashlight, a case of Red Bull, and a box of Thin Mints. Cruz is far more likely to trumpet a federal North Carolina-style anti-LGBT bill than to be the grand marshal at a Gay Pride parade.
“Todd, why the hell are you voting Republican?” Indeed.
