Ellen Page Squares Off Over LGBT Equality
With the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign reaching a fever pitch, Juno star Ellen Page took the opportunity to advocate for LGBT rights. While visiting the Iowa State Fair on Friday, CNN reports that the openly gay starlet brazenly approached conservative Republican Ted Cruz’s photo-op and began calling him out with unscripted, mildly uncomfortable questions.
“A lot of religious people also used the Bible to defend segregation, to defend slavery. I think religious freedom is so important and so crucial for all religions. LGBT people are worried they will directly be discriminated against.”
Essentially the crux of Ellen’s argument is that we’re seemingly a bit of a social impasse. How can we protect the rights of everyone equally when some believe simply recognizing the rights of others is a violation of their rights?
Ellen was quick to equate compromising the civil rights of the LGBT community is akin to the racial civil rights atrocities of our country’s past.
Not surprisingly, Senator Cruz had a few quick responses for Ellen. Being a staunch social conservative who’s built his campaign on Biblical values, it was immediately clear he and the pint-sized Ellen Page didn’t see eye to eye.
“No one has the right to force someone else to abandon their faith and their conscience.”
Ellen Page’s interaction with the stumping Senator lasted roughly four minutes, Pink News reported yesterday. While the conversation was definitely polarized, both Page and Cruz kept their cool and their pseudo-altercation was pretty civil. Particularly considering the heated emotions and strong personal and social convictions on both sides.
With the 2016 campaign season still ramping up and candidates just as divided as their constituents on social issues, this will definitely not be the last we hear from Ellen Page. Providing unmitigated equality for the LGBT community while preserving constitutionally protected religious freedom for all U.S. citizens has become one of the most heated social lines to toe and one of Ellen’s biggest social platforms.
2015’s Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage nation-wide, publicly touted by Page, has only added fuel to the fire. The gambit of Republican Presidential candidates have sworn to preserve religious freedom if elected. The throng of Democrats have vowed to continue to social revolution of total LGBT equality. So far, the two sides have been unable to find a way to meet in the middle. Like other recent election cycles, Ellen Page and other socially conscious celebs will most certainly use their platforms for their respective causes.
When Friday’s confrontation was all said and done, it didn’t appear that a single mind was changed. That being said, the questioning video has gone viral. Simply because Ellen Page chose to put herself out there for her cause: keeping issue of LGBT rights at the forefront of the election cycle.
[Image Courtesy of Dave Kotinsky/Getty]
