After fielding several questions about his opposition to gay marriage on Tuesday in Beaumont, Texas, Senator Ted Cruz complained that the media should be asking him about ISIS rather than “sex” — which is apparently how he views Americans in loving relationships being denied the right to marry. “Is there something about the left — and I am going to put the media in this category — that is obsessed with sex?” the 2016 candidate asked. “ISIS is executing homosexuals — you want to talk about gay rights? This week was a very bad week for gay rights because the expansion of ISIS, the expansion of radical, theocratic, Islamic zealots that crucify Christians, that behead children and that murder homosexuals — that ought to be concerning you far more than asking six questions all on the same topic.”
According to the Texas Tribune, Cruz also complained that the expansion of “mandatory same-sex marriage” is an attack on religious liberty in the United States. (He’s been using that phrase a lot lately, though as far as we know marrying someone of the same sex remains strictly voluntary nationwide.)
Echoing his complaint last week that the Democratic Party has become “so extreme and so radical in its devotion to mandatory gay marriage,” Cruz then accused a reporter of taking cues from a certain left-leaning cable network. “With respect, I would suggest not drawing your questions from MSNBC. They have very few viewers and they are a radical and extreme partisan outlet,” he said.
A Gallup poll released Tuesday found that support for same-sex marriage is at an all-time high in the U.S. Sixty percent of Americans say they support gay marriage, up from 55 percent last year. Cruz said he does not believe his position will hurt his chances with moderates in the 2016 election, but it looks like he’s underestimating the number of Americans who are “obsessed” with sex and/or equality.
