Cruz uses the bigotry of ‘religious freedom’ to hate on gay marriage and suck up to the base – Daily Kos
Don’t hide behind the Constitution or the Bible. If you’re against gay marriage, just be honest, put a scarlet ‘H’ on your shirt, and say, ‘I am a homophobe!’ — Henry Rollins.
In July, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) with the support of 47 Republicans. The Act would make it impossible for the federal government, a state, or local jurisdiction to unmarry gay couples who were legally married. It repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which banned the federal government from recognizing gay marriage.
Democrats had introduced the legislation due to Clarence Thomas’s expressed desire to ban same-sex marriage, contraception, and decency. If Thomas was able to convince four other conservatives on the Court to overturn the Obergefell decision establishing gay marriage as a right, it would make DOMA once again the law of the land — unless RFMA passes.
The Bill is now up for a vote in the Senate. To pass, it would require all 50 Democrats to vote for it — plus 10 Republicans. It is no surprise that Ted Cruz will not be one of the ten.
RFMA does not completely replace Obergefell. It allows states to ban new gay weddings within their borders. But it protects the right of same-sex couples — who travel to marry in a state where gay marriage is legal — to have those marriages recognized in their home state. This protection mirrors that of heterosexual couples who, regardless of which state they were married in, are considered married in all 50 states. This is too much for Ted and his sociopathic need to hurt people who have done him no harm.
In July, he said he thought the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize gay marriage was “clearly wrong”. It may have been clear to him, but a majority of Americans (71%) thought it was clearly right. On an episode of his podcast, The Verdict, he said,
“This bill without a religious liberty protection would have massive consequences across our country, weaponizing the Biden administration to go and target universities, K-12 schools, social service organizations, churches and strip them all of their tax-exempt status.”
There is no logic in his screed. He offers no evidence that forcing a state to recognize legal gay marriages would lead to churches losing their tax-exempt status. But evidence-free hysteria is an old tactic for the right. For eight years Conservatives maintained that Obama was planning a gun and Bible grab. Nada. And Biden — a profoundly religious man who goes to church every Sunday — has made no noise about targeting anybody.
I also do not know what he means by “a religious liberty protection”. Nowhere is gay marriage mandatory. No church is required to perform the ceremony. And what gay marriage has to do with places of learning and social service organizations is a mystery. Perhaps he is referring to adoption agencies.
Remarkably, in a rare show of common sense by a MAGA, he did allow that it would be too disruptive to annul the many existing gay marriages.
“You’ve got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages and it would be more than a little chaotic for the court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages that have been entered into in accordance with the law.
I think that would be a factor that would, would counsel restraint, that the court would be concerned about. But to be honest, I don’t think this court has any appetite for overturning any of these decisions.”
More surprisingly, he suggested that an old Texas law that banned gay sex — which was rendered moot in 2003 by the SCOTUS Lawrence decision — be repealed. A Cruz spokesman said
“Consenting adults should be able to do what they wish in their private sexual activity, and government has no business in their bedrooms.”
However, this being Cruz, his motivation was not compassion but politics. Strategically, his acceptance of bedroom privacy is a good move. While few think Cruz is a generous-hearted man, he is not dumb. And he plays the small government card well. If today he claims the government has no business regulating sex, then tomorrow he can claim that it also has no right to regulate businesses and the environment.
I realize that hypocrisy comes easily to conservatives. And many would have no problem saying that government can regulate some things but not others. But Cruz has laid the groundwork to more easily restrict the reach of government. And after establishing a laissez-faire regulatory approach, he can also attack federal welfare programs as overreach.
But he still needs traction with the base. His 2024 presidential ambitions burn bright. He was second in 2016 and would hate to be the first loser to DeSantis the next time around. If Trump survives his mountain of legal challenges, keeps his grip on the base, and runs in 2024, Ted will postpone to 2028 — when he will still be ‘only’ 57.
Based on that calculus, Ted needs to keep his cred with the GOP’s kingmakers, the conservative evangelicals. And nothing keeps them happier than some old-fashioned gay-bashing couched in the language of ‘freedom’. Even if Cruz does not say what he means by it.