Republican presidential candidate Ted
Cruz said earlier this month that opposition to gay marriage wouldn't
be a priority in his administration.
According to POLITICO,
Cruz made the comment during a closed doors fundraiser in Manhattan.
At the event, Cruz told a Republican
supporter that fighting same-sex marriage would not be a “top-three
priority.”
The donor told Cruz that he disagreed
with him on marriage equality, then asked: “So would you say it's
like a top-three priority for you – fighting gay marriage?”
“No,” Cruz answered. “I would
say defending the constitution is a top priority. And that cuts
across the whole spectrum – whether it's defending [the] First
Amendment, defending religious liberty.”
“People of New York may well resolve
the marriage question differently than the people of Florida or Texas
or Ohio. … That's why we have 50 states – to allow a diversity of
views. And so that is a core commitment,” he added.
Cruz, also a senator from Texas, is an
outspoken opponent of marriage equality. In a recent interview, he
compared the Supreme Court's June finding that gay and lesbian
couples have a constitutional right to marry to “Nazi decrees”
and called it “fundamentally illegitimate.”
(Related: Ted
Cruz says president can ignore Nazi-like gay marriage ruling.)