Three Republican candidates vying for a
U.S. Senate seat in Texas have attacked rival Tom Leppert for
supporting the gay community, gay weekly the Dallas
Voice reported.
Leppert appeared in two gay Pride
parades while serving as mayor of Dallas.
Fellow candidates Ted Cruz, Craig James
and Lela Pittenger attacked Leppert during a debate luncheon hosted
by the Christian conservative group Eagle Forum.
“When the mayor of a city chooses
twice to march in a parade celebrating gay Pride, that's a statement,
and it's not a statement I agree with,” Cruz said in arguing that
Leppert supports gay marriage.
Leppert insisted he's opposed to
marriage equality, but added that he had “visited with groups that
didn't agree with what I said.”
James, a former NFL player, said
Leppert was not setting a good example.
“I think right now this country, our
moral fiber is sliding down a slope that is gonna be hard to stop, if
we don't stand up with leaders who don't go ride in gay parades. I
can assure you I will never ride in a gay parade. And I hear what
you're saying, Tom, but leaders, our kids out there and people need
to see examples. … If you are chosen as our senator, and be a
leader, and not do things like that. We need examples for our kids.”
James added that he thinks being gay is
a choice.
“I think it's a choice, I do,” he
said. “You have to make that choice, absolutely. … Same-sex
marriage, if someone chooses to do that, then that's them, and God's
going to judge each one of us in this room for our actions, but in
that case right there, they're going to have to answer to the lord
for their actions. We should not give benefits to those civil
unions. It should not occur. We have to stay strong on this.”
Pittenger said she would not “walk
down the street with them [gays] celebrating what I believe to be a
sin.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.
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