Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has released a new video featuring an Iowa couple who refused to host a gay wedding at their gallery and were eventually sued.
Cruz interviewed the Mennonite couple, Dick and Betty Odgaard, who own and operate Gortz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, which was a former church that they converted into a gallery, bistro, flower shop and art and framing business in 2002.
"Dick and Betty inspire me," Cruz said in the video.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa in 2009 and in August 2013, same-sex couple Jared Ellers and Lee Stafford inquired if they could hold their wedding at the gallery.
Dick refused, based on his religious belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
The gay couple filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Odgaards before the Iowa Human Rights Commission. In response, the Odgaards filed a lawsuit against the commission.
Last December, the Odgaards settled the lawsuit and paid $5,000 to the gay couple and promised not to discriminate against same-sex couples again.
However, they decided not to host anymore wedding ceremonies, straight or same-sex, at their gallery to avoid any more lawsuit.
In the video, Betty said, "It was devastating to hear that we were bigots, we were homophobes, we were haters."
She said they have no hatred against gays.
In their decision to stop hosting wedding ceremonies, Betty said, "we didn't have a choice."
Dick said as a result, their business declined and they eventually decided to close the gallery by August this year.
"Our country was founded by people who risked everything for religious liberty, free of the government getting in the way," Cruz said. "And I want to thank both of you, number one, for taking a stand and, number two, for telling your story."
"Your story is powerful. Your story is inspirational and inspires me, and inspires millions of believers, believers of many faiths across this country who want to live in a land where we're free to live out according to our faith and our convictions and it's not second guessed by the government stepping in and saying, we don't share your faith and we're going to shut you down," Cruz said.
Meanwhile, the Advocate magazine criticised Cruz for "taking political spin to a new level with a campaign video where he blatantly misrepresents the facts surrounding an Iowa venue whose owners were 'forced' to close up shop rather than let a same-sex couple hold their wedding there."
Advocate said his "depiction of the couple's story fits neatly into the agenda of the upcoming Rally for Religious Liberty in Des Moines."
