Ted Cruz presidential campaign, 2016/Gay rights
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 Ted Cruz |
U.S. Senator (Assumed office: 2013) |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 |
This page was current as of the 2016 election.
- When asked on April 18, 2016, what he would do to protect gay individuals from “institutionalized discrimination,” Ted Cruz referred to religious liberty and states’ rights. He said, “When it comes to religious liberty, religious liberty is something that protects everyone. It is our very first amendment, very first phrase that is protected in the Bill of Rights." Cruz continued, “We want to be able to live in a world where we don't have the government dictating our beliefs and how we live. We have a right to live according to our faith and according to our conscience.”[2]
- Commenting on Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s veto of a religious liberties bill, which some argued would discriminate against gay and transgender individuals, Ted Cruz told reporters on March 28, 2016, that it “was very disappointing to see Governor Deal in Georgia side with leftist activists.”[3]
- At the “Rally for Religious Liberty” at Bob Jones University on November 14, 2015, Cruz said the issue of same-sex marriage was “not settled” legally. He said, “It’s not the law of the land. It’s not the Constitution. It’s not legitimate, and we will stand and fight.” Under the Tenth Amendment, Cruz believes the definition of marriage should instead be “left to the states and left to the people.”[4]
- Cruz, on October 12, 2015, said he opposed efforts to allow transgender soldiers in the military. "How about having the military focusing on hunting down and killing the bad guys...instead of treating it as this crucible for social justice innovations," Cruz said.[5]
- On September 8, 2015, Cruz posted on Facebook, “Praise God that Kim Davis is being released. It was an outrage that she was imprisoned for six days for living according to her Christian faith.” Kim Davis worked as a Kentucky county clerk and refused to give out same-sex marriage licenses the week before. Cruz also appeared at the rally surrounding her release from prison the same day.[6][7]
- In August 2015, Cruz signed a pledge with the National Organization for Marriage “to take several specific actions as president to restore marriage to the law and protect people of faith from discrimination because of their support for traditional marriage.”[8]
- Cruz sponsored S.2024 - the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014, which proposed prohibiting the federal government from recognizing a same-sex marriage from a state that does not recognize same-sex marriage.[9]
- In 2014, Cruz co-sponsored S.1808 - the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, which proposed prohibiting "the federal government from taking an adverse action against a person on the basis that such person acts in accordance with a religious belief that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage."[10]
- During a 2013 interview with Jay Leno, Cruz said, "I support marriage between one man and one woman. But I also think it's a question for the states. Some states have made decisions one way on gay marriage. Some states have made decisions the other way. And that's the great thing about our Constitution, is different states can make different decisions depending on the values of their citizens."[11]
Obergefell v. Hodges
- On June 29, 2015, NBC's Savannah Guthrie asked Ted Cruz if he would support county clerks denying interracial couples marriage licenses on religious grounds. Cruz responded, "There's no religious backing for that." When Guthrie pressed further, Cruz said the difference between Loving v. Virginia and Obergefell v. Hodges is that the country "fought a bloody civil war" and passed three amendments to the Constitution to honor its original promise of equal rights.[12]
- In a June 28, 2015, interview with NPR, Ted Cruz said states that were not a party to Obergefell could ignore the Supreme Court's ruling, explaining, "[T]here's no legal obligation to acquiesce to anything other than a court judgment." Cruz also noted that the "next major battlefield that is going to occur following this marriage decision is religious liberty."[13]
- Cruz authored an op-ed in National Review on June 26, 2015, to condemn the "judicial activism" of the Supreme Court. He stated that Obergefell "undermines not just the definition of marriage, but the very foundations of our representative form of government." Cruz added, "I have already introduced a constitutional amendment to preserve the authority of elected state legislatures to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and also legislation stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction over legal assaults on marriage."[14]
Transgender restroom access
- Ted Cruz restated his support on April 23, 2016, for the North Carolina bill which prohibits transgender individuals from using the public bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. “There is no greater evil than predators and if the law says that any man, if he chooses can enter a women's restroom, a little girl's restroom and stay there and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you're opening the door for predators," Cruz said. He added that although he accepted unisex bathrooms, “a women’s restroom should not be used to drive a political point by the PC police." [15]
- On April 14, 2016, Cruz said that he supports North Carolina lawmakers' push to prohibit transgender people from using the public restroom that aligns with their gender identity. According to the Associated Press, the candidate said that laws like North Carolina's restricting transgender people to bathrooms of the sex listed on their birth certificate make sense because "men should not be going to the bathroom with little girls." During a prerecorded MSNBC town hall, Cruz said, "That is a perfectly reasonable determination for the people to make."[16]
- During an MSNBC town hall event on April 14, 2016, Ted Cruz said that he supports a law in North Carolina that prohibits transgender individuals to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. Cruz said, “I’m a constitutionalist. And the state has the power to pass their own laws. … As the father of daughters, I’m not terribly excited about men being able to go alone into a bathroom with my daughters. And I think that’s a perfectly reasonable determination for the people to make.”[17]
- On February 29, 2016, Ted Cruz’s campaign announced the creation of a 19-member Religious Liberty Advisory Council intended to guide the candidate’s “policies to protect religious liberty and reverse the unprecedented attacks on freedom.” The council is chaired by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.[18] In a March 24, 2016, interview, Perkins told Fox News pundit Todd Starnes that the council is recommending that a Cruz administration move to deny anti-discrimination protections for LGBT workers and roll back access to contraception upon entering the White House.[19] The council recommends that Cruz “direct all federal agencies to stop interpreting ‘sex’ to include ‘sexual orientation’ and/or ‘gender identity.'” According to Think Progress, this would remove protections that LGBT people — and specifically members of the transgender community — rely on for relief in employment and education discrimination.[20]
- On November 21, 2015, Ted Cruz opposed transgender youths being permitted to use the restroom or locker room corresponding to their gender identity. He said, “Look, these guys are so nutty that the federal government is going after school districts, trying to force them to let boys shower with little girls. Now listen: I’m the father of two daughters, and the idea that the federal government is coming in saying that boys, with all the god-given equipment of boys, can be in the shower room with junior high girls — this is lunacy!”[21]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term Ted + Cruz + Gay + Rights
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Politico, "Ted Cruz drops out of presidential race," May 3, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Gay Republican confronts Ted Cruz over same-sex marriage," April 18, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Cruz calls Georgia governor’s veto of religious freedom bill ‘very disappointing’," March 28, 2016
- ↑ The Greenville News, "Cruz at BJU: Gay marriage issue not settled," November 14, 2015
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Ted Cruz: The military shouldn’t be a ‘cauldron for social experiments’," October 12, 2015
- ↑ CNN Politics, "Mike Huckabee leads Kim Davis out of Kentucky jail," September 8, 2015
- ↑ New York Times, "Mike Huckabee (Not Ted Cruz) Captures Spotlight at Kim Davis Event," September 8, 2015
- ↑ CNN Politics, "4 GOP candidates sign anti-same-sex marriage pledge," August 25, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.2024 - State Marriage Defense Act of 2014," accessed December 10, 2014
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.1808 - Marriage and Religious Freedom Act," accessed December 10, 2014
- ↑ CBS News, "Ted Cruz talks guns, same-sex marriage, Obamacare with Jay Leno," November 9, 2014
- ↑ NBC News, "Sen. Ted Cruz: Supreme Court Justices 'Violated Their Oaths'," June 29, 2015
- ↑ NPR, "Complete Transcript: Senator Ted Cruz Interview With NPR News," June 28, 2015
- ↑ National Review, "Constitutional Remedies to a Lawless Supreme Court," June 26, 2015
- ↑ ABC News, "Ted Cruz Says Not Having 'Bathroom Bill' Is 'Opening the Door for Predators'," April 23, 2016
- ↑ TPM, "Ted Cruz: Transgender 'Bathroom Bills' Are 'Perfectly Reasonable,'" April 14, 2016
- ↑ NBC News, "Ted Cruz defends anti-LGBT North Carolina law," April 14, 2016
- ↑ Cruz for President, “Cruz for President Announces Formation of Religious Liberty Advisory Council,” February 29, 2016
- ↑ Right Wing Watch, “Ted Cruz's Religious Liberty Advisory Council Recommends Reversing LGBT Rights Victories, Curtailing Birth Control Coverage,” March 24, 2016
- ↑ Think Progress, “Ted Cruz Reveals The ‘Religious Liberty’ Plan His Hate Group Buddies Came Up With,” March 25, 2016
- ↑ Advocate.com, "Ted Cruz Thinks Supporting Trans Students Is ‘Lunacy’," November 22, 2015
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