Ellen Page crashes anti-gay Republican’s photo op, grills him on equality
Ellen Page attends the premiere of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy at ArcLight Hollywood on February 12, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Rich Fury/Getty)
Anti-gay Republican Ted Cruz might have expected a visit to the Iowa State Fair to go smoothly – but actress Ellen Page had other ideas.
The Juno star, who came out as gay last year, cornered the Presidential wannabe as he was flipping burgers for a campaign photo op – and proceeded to grill him about his homophobic beliefs.
Senator Cruz is one of the most notoriously anti-LGBT Republicans in contention for the Presidential nomination, filing desperate bills to permit anti-gay discrimination on religious grounds, and congratulating homophobic businesspeople for refusing to serve gays.
Interjecting during the photo op, the X-Men actress said: “I have a question about LGBT people being fired for being gay or trans.”
Cruz responded “Well, what we’re seeing right now, we’re seeing Bible-believing Christians being persecuted for living according to their faith.”
Page hit back: “But you’re discriminating against LGBT people! Would you use that argument in segregation?”
Cruz attempted to shut down the actress, claiming: “I’m happy to answer your question, but not to have a back-and-forth debate.”
He claimed: “No one has the right to force someone else to abandon their faith and their conscience.
“Imagine, hypothetically, you had a gay florist and imagine two evangelicals wanted to get married and the gay florist decide, ‘You know what, I disagree with your faith and I don’t want to provide flowers’.
“The gay florist has every right to say, I disagree with your faith and don’t want to participate. There’s other places you can buy flowers from.”
Page argued back: “But gay people used to be thrown in jail! It was illegal to be gay in this country. [It’s still happening] all over the world!”
The pair continued to talk for four minutes about LGBT rights – though neither seemed particularly convinced by the other’s arguments.
Page also brought up persecution she witnessed on a recent trip to Jamaica – where she attended a Pride event despite homosexuality being illegal.
However, the actress has posed more difficult questions to Cruz in the past…
