Republican presidential candidate Ted
Cruz on Wednesday touted the endorsements he's received from leading
opponents of LGBT rights.
Cruz credited the endorsements of Tony
Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), James
Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and the National Organization
for Marriage (NOM) on his strong opposition to the Supreme Court's
June finding that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right
to marry.
Appearing on Janet Mefferd's radio
show, Cruz said that the high court's “disastrous” and
“fundamentally illegitimate” ruling had led to “unprecedented”
persecution of Christians.
Cruz pointed to several cases where
business owners had been found guilty of breaking state or local
nondiscriminination laws to make his case.
“Much of this persecution is the
fruit of the Supreme Court's disastrous gay marriage ruling last
year,” he claimed, though all of the examples he gave happened
before the court handed down its ruling.
“I believe that decision was
fundamentally illegitimate. It was lawless. It was unconstitutional
and it will not stand,” Cruz
said.
“And I would note, that is precisely
why Dr. James Dobson has endorsed me in this campaign. It is why
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has endorsed me in this
campaign. It is why the National Organization on Marriage [sic] has
endorsed me on this campaign and has said it cannot support Donald
Trump or Marco Rubio. Because if we're not willing to defend
marriage, we are giving up the foundational building blocks of the
family. We're giving up the Judeo-Christian values that built this
great nation,” he added.