Former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert walks alongside the city float at gay Pride in 2009.
Republican Senate hopeful Tom Leppert again came under fire today for his decision to appear in two gay Pride parades while mayor of Dallas.
Leppert was attacked by fellow candidates Ted Cruz, Craig James and Lela Pittenger during a debate luncheon hosted by the right-wing Eagle Forum at the Dallas Country Club.
The exchange featured some strong anti-gay language, with James saying he believes homosexuality is a choice and Pittenger comparing the Pride parade to an orgy. It began when the debate moderator, John C. Goodman, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, noted that Cruz had attacked Leppert for appearing at gay Pride during a recent candidate forum in Fort Worth.
Goodman then asked Cruz, “Do you have something against gay people?”
“I have something against gay marriage,” Cruz responded. “I don’t support gay marriage. I think there is an onslaught right now in this country to tear down traditional marriage, and I don’t think it’s right.”
Cruz, former solicitor general for the state of Texas, talked about how he helped Attorney General Greg Abbott block a gay couple from obtaining a dissolution of their Vermont civil union in Beaumont several years ago. Goodman then asked Cruz whether he was suggesting that Leppert supports same-sex marriage.
“When the mayor of a city chooses twice to march in a parade celebrating gay Pride, that’s a statement, and it’s not a statement I agree with,” Cruz said.
Leppert then responded by referring to himself in the third person: “The mayor is against gay marriage. He believes that marriage should be defined as one man and one woman.
“My job as mayor was to represent everybody in this city,” Leppert said. “I visited with groups that didn’t agree with what I said. I talked to groups that I didn’t agree with what they said, but it was my obligation to represent everybody. I engaged everybody, and I will continue to do that.”
When Cruz attacked Leppert for appearing at gay Pride last month, Leppert responded by comparing himself to Jesus. This time, although he took a similar approach, he stopped short of invoking the name.
“I will tell you my role as a Christian is to reach out and touch everybody,” Leppert said. “I wish I could have made stands only when I was in a courtroom, but I didn’t. I was criticized time and time again for showing my faith and being open with it, and standing pro-life. In fact, The Dallas Morning News criticized me for taking a position of pro-life. It was the right thing to do, I will continue to do it. But I did it when I put my neck on the line as a leader standing up for what exactly was right. I was pro-life unabashedly, and I said it.
“I am against gay marriage,” Leppert said. “I believe marriage should be defined as one man and one woman. It is very clear. But I had a responsibility to represent everybody, and everybody understood exactly where my faith was, and if there’s any question you can see pastors like Robert Jeffress and David Dykes and those folks, who don’t understand me from the business standpoint, but they sure understand who I am, and they have stood unabashedly and endorsed me for this office.”
Goodman then noted that gay couples are denied more than 1,000 rights because the federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. Goodman asked the candidates whether, in lieu of legalizing same-sex marriage, the federal government should merely grant gay couples those benefits by recognizing civil unions or other partnerships.
That’s when James, a former NFL player and ESPN football analyst, chimed in.
“I think right now this country, our moral fiber is sliding down a slope that is gonna be hard to stop, if we don’t stand up with leaders who don’t go ride in gay parades,” James said. “I can assure you I will never ride in a gay parade. And I hear what you’re saying, Tom, but leaders, our kids out there and people need to see examples. Now, I’m a guy that believes in a man and a woman being the greatest governance occurring in a home at night between a husband and a wife, Adam and Eve and what the Bible says. And the backbone, and I know you’re a Christian, I’m not doubting that Tom, but man you’ve got to stand up, if you are chosen as our senator, and be a leader, and not do things like that. We need examples for our kids.”
Goodman then asked James and the other candidates whether they think being gay is a choice.
“I think it’s a choice, I do,” James responded. “You have to make that choice, absolutely.… Same-sex marriage, if someone chooses to do that, then that’s them, and God’s going to judge each one of us in this room for our actions, but in that case right there, they’re going to have to answer to the lord for their actions. We should not give benefits to those civil unions. It should not occur. We have to stay strong on this. This is important, man. I tell you what, we have a fiscal issue in this county, but we also have a moral issue in this country, and as Christians we better stand up.”
Pittenger, a longshot candidate, was next to weigh in.
“I think what you see on the stage pretty much explains why we have so many denominations in the church,” Pittenger said. “Everyone kind of has a different perspective on what they think Christ would have done and how he would have acted. Now, I respect what Tom was saying, that he felt like he was to engage the entire community. I personally disagree with his approach, just because if there was a Republican club that was openly homosexual, and they wanted to talk issues, any number of issues, I’m happy to go visit with them about the issues. But I’m not going to walk down the street with them celebrating what I believe to be a sin. But I respect Tom’s approach. Christ reached people in many different ways. The Pharisees hated him because he ate dinner with sinners. And Jesus said, ‘The doctor doesn’t come for the well, he comes for the sick.’ And we just have to, each one of us has to stand before God, and make sure our heart is right with God about how we engage those who are living in sinful ways. Now while he ate dinner with them, I don’t believe he marched along with them as they were going down to have an orgy or have any sort of drunken revelries. But they came in his space, and he engaged with them there. This is about different perspectives on how we engage people we believe are lost, and you just have to decide which one’s better.”
Finally, Leppert was given an opportunity to respond to James and Pittenger.
“I’ve addressed the issue,” Leppert said, and the debate moved on to the topic of illegal immigration.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, whom polls show is the frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary, didn’t attend today’s forum.
Watch video of the exchange below. (Note that the video was taken from a projection screen at the back of the room.)
They’re Christians. Yeah right. Jesus said love your neighbor as you love yourself. If you love your neighbor as you love yourself, wouldn’t you want your neighbor to have all the same rights as yourself? If not, then are you loving them as you love yourself? There were 38 commandments given by Jesus. None of them state anything about not allowing same sex marriages or discriminating against others or spreading hatred for those different from you.
So let him be, I still don’t like the guy because he hates Obama with a Passion.
This is eerily a throwback speech to the debates when blacks and whites were trying to get married back during the civil rights movement. I’m a vet that served my country gave my blood and my brother gave his life as a gay solider to fight for freedom and justice and this is what we bled and died for? so they hate us while we die for them????
Do not expect any of the conservative GOP Senate rivals to stand up for equality for their “second class” LGBT neighbors, friends, and family members. This is simply too risky, both physically and politically, for elected leaders to do in a environment that was partially created by GOP dirty trickster, Arthur Finkelstein, who has personally benefited from Liberal equality policies & legislation! Yes, he married his longtime boyfriend.
Arthur Finkelstein Is Screwing Up America
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-huberman/arthur-finkelstein-is-scr_b_22768.html
Who’s employed Finkelstein in Texas? Dewhurst & James?
Dear “second class” LGBT citizens, these conservative senate candidates seem to think you will be placated with cheap parade trinkets and love the sinner, hate the sin “christian” love!
Wow, just wow! Craig James is just a FREAKING FOOTBALL PLAYER! What makes him qualified to be Senator. And I was never aware how bigoted he was!!!!! Disgusting!
And I also wonder which one of these guys the Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud will be itching to endorse.
James hires famous GOP consultant Finkelstein, a former Dewhurst …trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com › News › Politics › Trail Blazers BlogFeb 8, 2012 – Republican Senate candidate Craig James has hired Arthur J. Finkelstein, who over the past four decades displayed a knack for discrediting …
i’m so DISGUSTED by anyone, particularly Republicans, using their religion to pander to Christian groups and justify withholding freedom from every American citizen in this country. it absolutely sickens me! “Traditional Marriage,” as they call it, is a construct of their religion, NOT something defined by the Constitution–a document that covers us all, hetero-and homosexual. Just as it DOES guarantee us all freedom of (or from, if you will) religion, it does NOT restrict marriage to one man and one woman. That is religion’s definition.
Like the dodo (could have said dinosaur, but the “dodo” seems more apropos), these ignorant, narrow-minded views will someday be extinct–just like those regarding withholding women’s voting rights, denying equal rights for blacks, and preventing blacks and whites from marrying. And some day, we will look back at these people and pity their ignorance.
@todd, conservatives have always used their religious beliefs to keep their “second class” neighbors in check. “second class” citizens throughout history have been known to be very ambitious in an attempt to try and prove they are worthy of equal treatment. This is a perverted game directed by the hands of the discriminatory majority! When the “second class citizens” demand equal treatment under the law, their discriminatory opponents claim they are being “uppity”.
Do not be fooled by cheap parade trinkets thrown by anti-equality elected leaders!
Craig James continues to build on his lousy career at ESPN
All I am getting from this is that you should elect me because of my christian beliefs .. not what I think is politically correct and best for the district I would like to represent.
The Ku Klux Klan also were/are explicitly Christian terrorist in ideology, basing their beliefs on a “religious foundation” in Christianity. I just see these candidates as just more Christian terrorist and the LGBT community is their current punching bag. Here’s a good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism
Wow, some pretty ugly anti-gay stuff. Craig James: what an ignorant holier-than-thou bigot, ESPN must be so proud to have him on their team (…). Lela Pittenger thinks that gay Prides are orgies and its participants are sick people. And all of them are OK with gay people being treated as second class citizens. Shame on them!