Homophobic Duck Dynasty star labels gay marriage ‘evil’ at Ted Cruz rally
Phil Roberston has labelled same-sex marriage ‘wicked nonsense’.
Reality show star Phil Robertson made a series of homophobic comments during a Ted Cruz rally in Iowa on Sunday (January 31)
Robertson urged voters to “rid the earth” of the LGBT community as they prepared to choose their Republican presidential candidate.
“When a fellow like me looks at the landscape and sees the depravity, the perversion – redefining marriage and telling us that marriage is not between a man and a woman? Come on Iowa!” Robertson said.
“It is nonsense. It is evil. It’s wicked. It’s sinful,” he said to a cheering audience.
“They want us to swallow it, you say. We have to run this bunch out of Washington, DC.
“We have to rid the earth of them. Get them out of there.”
Democratic National Convention spokesperson TJ Helmstetter said: “This morning, one washed-up reality star running for president said he would appoint judges who would overturn marriage equality.
“Today, Ted Cruz invited a different washed-up reality star to stump in Iowa with him, and this one’s views are even more out-of-touch.
“Ted Cruz owes not only LGBT Americans, but all Americans an apology for his surrogate’s deplorable and dangerous rallying cry that the earth should be ‘rid’ of marriage equality supporters.
“The LGBT community knows all too well the violence, the hate crimes, the alienation felt by LGBT teenagers that can result from such heated rhetoric.
He added: “How can a presidential candidate justify calling for eliminating a group of people based on their political views? It’s downright irresponsible.
“Iowans know that in the almost seven years since marriage equality came to the Hawkeye State, the only result has been that now everyone can marry the person they love.
“The majority of American voters agree that the Supreme Court’s decision upholding marriage equality nationwide represented monumental progress.
“Americans deserve a president who will not use hate to divide us and drag America backward. It’s clear the Republican Party doesn’t have any candidate who can live up to that.”
This isn’t the first time the preach has encouraged violence, after giving a gruesome sermon about the murder of atheists last year.
The anti-gay reality star was suspended from the A&E reality show for less than two weeks in 2013, when he questioned in an interview to GQ why gay men would prefer “a man’s anus” over a vagina.
The show has since remained on the air – despite Robertson continuing to deliver homophobic sermons claiming that sexually transmitted infections are God’s punishment for gays, and that“biblically correct” sex is always safe.
Senator Cruz is also notorious for anti-LGBT views, and was one of four Republican Presidential candidates to sign a pledge to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Robertson is not the only homophobic extremist Cruz has ties with – in recent weeks he ducked calls to condemn a pastor he shared a stage with, who repeatedly said gay people should be put to death.
