The top two Republican presidential primary contenders haven't been straightforward on the topic of gay rights in their campaigns,
according to the Daily Beast.
Front-runner Donald Trump last summer came under fire for avoiding condemnation of gay marriage during a controversy over Kentucky clerk
Kim Davis's refusal to sign marriage licenses for same sex couple.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reportedly made off-the-record comments indicating
fighting same-sex marriage wasn't a priority for him — though he's made
religious freedom, including legal protections for businesses and individuals who don't want to hire or serve same-sex couples, central to his campaign.
The Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT Republican group that hasn't endorsed a candidate yet, focused on Trump's conflicting views of gay marriage in a
video released last month, the Daily Beast notes.
Robert Jeffress, a top Trump supporter and pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, tells the Daily Beast the pair haven't discussed gay marriage, but that he believes Trump and Cruz "are pretty close on the issue."
"And that is, while they may personally support traditional marriage, they also realize that the Supreme Court has already ruled on this issue and that subject is not going to be re-litigated," he tells the Daily Beast.
Trump told Fox News in February he'd appoint judges open to overturning the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, but last August told the Hollywood Reporter that
anyone pushing against marriage equality "is doing it for political reasons."
Cruz has firmly rejected same-sex marriage rights, but his campaign was the only one in California so far to have a meeting with the Log Cabin Republicans' Los Angeles chapter, the Daily Beast reports.
"The first few minutes were a little bit tense," Matthew Craffey, who heads the L.A. chapter, tells the Daily Beast, adding that he believes Cruz's position "wouldn't be anti-gay, just hands off."
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