Ted Cruz will push anti-LGBT laws through Congress now Obama can’t stop him
(Getty)
Republican Senator Ted Cruz is throwing his weight behind a fresh assault on LGBT rights, once President Obama is out of office.
The Republican-backed First Amendment Defence Act permit forms of anti-LGBT discrimination on the grounds of religion.
The law has been stalled in Congress until now due to an expected veto from President Obama – however, President-elect Trump recently pledged to sign it into law.
In a speech to Catholic interest groups, Mr Trump confirmed he would not veto the law, which bans the government from taking any “action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognised as the union of one man and one woman”.
The broadly-written law would part-legalise religious discrimination against LGBT people in all sectors, from employment to retail to healthcare, banning any intervention or legal recourse.
Anti-LGBT Republican Senator Ted Cruz, one of the most influential hardline opponents of equality in Congress, confirmed a fresh push to pass the law this month.
He confirmed to Buzzfeed: “The prospects for protecting religious freedom are brighter now than they have been in a long time.
“We are having ongoing conversations with our colleagues both in Congress and leaders in the new administration about a multitude of ways we can honor the commitment made to the voters in this last election.”
Senator Cruz has an extreme record on LGBT equality, previously backing a plot to void all existing same-sex marriages, and also claiming that transgender people are a threat to his daughters.
He doubled down on his stance by cracking jokes about Donald Trump after Mr Trump briefly came out in favour of trans rights.
The ever-sensitive President-elect Trump now opposes transgender rights.
