Ted Cruz: Media should shut up about marriage because of ISIS

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Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said the media should stop asking him about gay rights because ISIS are executing gay people.

Responding questions about gay rights from the press at an event in Texas, Mr Cruz said, according to the Texas Tribune: “Is there something about the left — and I am going to put the media in this category — that is obsessed with sex?

“ISIS is executing homosexuals and you want to talk about gay rights?

“This week was a very bad week for gay rights because the expansion of ISIS, the expansion of radical, theocratic, Islamic zealots that crucify Christians, that behead children and that murder homosexuals — that ought to be concerning you far more than asking six questions all on the same topic.

“With respect, I would suggest not drawing your questions from MSNBC. They have very few viewers and they are a radical and extreme partisan outlet.”

The Senator pledged to “uphold the sacrament of marriage” when announcing his run for President in March.

Mr Cruz was picked as top choice for President last year by attendees at the anti-gay Values Voter Summit – which is run by a group that regularly compares gay rights to the holocaust.

He also describe out Apple CEO Tim Cook’s sexuality as a “personal decision”. 

Other rumoured contenders for the Republican nomination include Dr Ben Carson – who damaged his chances by claiming prisons prove being gay is a choice – and Jeb Bush, who has recently hired an anti-gay activist to work on his campaign team.