Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is wrong about many things. Oftentimes, he memorializes those terrible opinions on Twitter, where dunking on him has become a favored pastime among terminally online liberals. This is why it’s worth taking note that Monday saw something unusual from Cruz: a good point.
That Cruz quote-tweeted reporting from The New York Times approvingly is strange enough. So is the fact that he’s siding with President Joe Biden, who condemned Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act the same day. But he’s right to call out the law President Yoweri Museveni signed. NBC News reports that, under the law’s provisions, even identifying as LGBTQ is enough to earn a jail sentence, as are “promoting and abetting homosexuality, as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.”
It also penalizes so-called aggravated homosexuality with death. That charge applies if the accused had gay sex with someone under 18, is HIV-positive or held undue influence over the “victim of the offense.” It also, though, applies if the accused “is a serial offender,” which sounds as though it could be used as the equivalent of a “three strikes” policy for gay Ugandans who are arrested multiple times.
Now, saying gay people shouldn’t be jailed because of whom they love is one of the lowest bars for human decency. Yet that tweet still put Cruz at odds with some of the more outspoken members of the right wing, including lawyer and conspiracy theorist Jenna Ellis. “You or I may not agree with their choices, but consenting adults should not go to jail for what they do in their own bedrooms,” Cruz tweeted in response to Ellis.
I’ll give Cruz some credit for being pretty consistent on that front. In 2003, as Texas’ newly appointed solicitor-general, he passed on arguing the landmark case Lawrence v. Texas before the Supreme Court. The resulting opinion struck down Texas’ anti-sodomy law, opening the door for other pro-LGBTQ rulings, like the overturning of the…
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