DES MOINES, IOwa — The Washington Post reports that Sen. Ted Cruz and actress Ellen Page had an argument over gay rights at the Iowa State Fair on Friday.
Page asked Cruz about gay people who are “being fired for just strictly being gay or trans.”
Cruz responded, “We’re seeing Bible-believing Christians being persecuted for living according to their faith.”
Page replied, “For discriminating against LGBT people?”
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“No, for living according to their faith,” said Cruz. “Imagine, hypothetically, that you had a gay florist and two evangelical Christians wanted to get married, and the gay florist decided, ‘You know what? I disagree with your faith and I don’t want to provide flowers.'”
“I would say they should provide the flowers,” said Page.
“Do you know where gay people are being persecuted right now?” Cruz asked.
“All over the world,” Page said.
Then Cruz said that gay people are being killed in Iran and the Islamic State.
“And on the left you hear complete silence about Iran hanging homosexuals,” he said.
“That’s not true!” Page exclaimed, saying that homosexuals are persecuted all over the world, including Jamaica.
“Does it trouble you at all that you draw a moral equivalence between Christians in Jamaica and radical Islamic terrorists in ISIS who are beheading children?” Cruz asked.
He said that Jamaica “may not be celebrating a gay pride parade, but they’re not murdering people,” like they are in Iran or the Islamic State. He asked why Obama hadn’t raised the issue.
“I would love to talk to Obama about it. That’d be great,” Page said.
“Well, good, then we’re agreed on it,” Cruz said.
“No, no, we’re not. Don’t do that.”
“Ma’am, we’ve had a long discussion,” Cruz said.
Page said, “”Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it.”
