Cruz discussed people choosing to not serve gay customers, like the Odgaards, and said that it’s religious persecution if they are forced to do so – like making a Jewish rabbi perform a Catholic ceremony.
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According to THR, the heated exchange will appear on a forthcoming show Page is hosting for Vice Media titled Gaycation With Ellen Page.
“No one has the right to force someone else to abandon their faith or their conscious”, Cruz continued.
At that point, Cruz told the actress that he was not interested in having a “back and forth debate“. The Odgaards refused to rent an event space to a gay couple for their wedding and were fined $5,000 by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Contrary to his claims, HRC’s polling of self-identified LGBT Americans found that nearly two-thirds of LGBT people have experienced discrimination. Page is a lesbian.
“Well, then people would have used that argument in the segregation era”, Page insisted.
Actress and gay rights advocate Ellen Page ambushed Sen.
When the reporter asked if Cruz knew he was verbally sparring with the star of movies like “Juno” and “Inception“, Cruz admitted that he did not.
“No, we’re not. Don’t do that”, Page said. “On the left, you hear complete silence”.
“That’s not true!” Page exclaimed while he was speaking.
Page agreed, but pointed out the fact that gays are persecuted all over the world, and are even killed for their sexual orientation in majority-Christian countries like Jamaica.
“Does that trouble you at all that you draw a moral equivalence between Christians in Jamaica and radical Islamic terrorists in ISIS that are beheading children?” Cruz said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
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“There is a war on faith in America today”, Cruz the son of an evangelical preacher said, alluding to 54 million evangelical Christians who he said did not vote during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. “Don’t do that”, Page said. “I was just so ready to do it and quite frankly so excited to do it. It was a combination of such thrill to finally be at a place in my life where I was able to do that”.
