US: Anti-gay conference picks Ted Cruz as top choice for President
Texas senator Ted Cruz has been picked as the most popular potential Presidential candidate at the anti-gay Values Voter Summit.
The Republican received 25% of the votes cast by attendees at the event, which is run by the Family Research Council – whose president Tony Perkins regularly compares gay rights to the holocaust.
Cruz attempted to introduce a bill to ban recognition of same-sex marriage earlier this year, despite the striking down of the Defence of Marriage Act.
Dr Ben Carson, who has compared gays to paedophiles and recently claimed same-sex marriage was a ‘Marxist plot’ came second in the poll with 20%, followed by Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on 12% and Rick Santorum with 10%
Democrat Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, garnered just one vote out of the 1,900 cast.
The Family Research Council was condemned by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League in June for Perkins’ comparison between gay rights and the Holocaust, but he repeated his claim in August.
Mr Perkins also believes that religious freedom only applies to Christians who oppose same-sex marriage, compares gay people to drug addicts, and threatens a “revolution” over equal marriage,
Anti-gay activist Mat Staver – who recently compared same-sex marriage to beheading carried out by ISIS – also lead a panel at the event, titled ‘The Assault On Constitutional Rights In A Nanny State’.
