Mocking the GOP while standing up for the US Constitution and secular values, President Barack Obama declares that religious liberty never justifies denying an American their constitutional rights.

Speaking at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York this weekend, Obama said:

We affirm that we cherish our religious freedom and are profoundly respectful of religious traditions. But we also have to say clearly that our religious freedom doesn’t grant us the freedom to deny our fellow Americans their constitutional rights. And that even as we are respectful and accommodating genuine concerns and interests of religious institutions, we need to reject politicians who are supporting new forms of discrimination as a way to scare up votes. That’s not how we move America forward.

Obama also mocked the GOP for being behind the times on same-sex marriage, chiding the party and its presidential candidates for continuing to hold out against marriage equality, even though a majority of the country now supports it, noting:

The good news is they probably won’t use marriage equality as a wedge issue like they did in 2004 because the country has come too far. In fact, America has left the leaders of the Republican Party behind.

Associated Press reports Obama’s remarks were interrupted by repeated applause and cheers.

Huffington Post reports Obama celebrated his policy achievements that benefited LGBT Americans at the Democratic fundraiser, including his decision to overturn the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers, his executive order banning workplace discrimination against LGBT individuals employed by the federal government and federal contractors, as well as this year’s Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

During his remarks Obama noted that it will take time for some Americans to embrace LGBT rights, while showing scorn towards Republicans who cite religious freedom as a motive to deny rights to LGBT citizens.

An optimistic Obama declared:

Time after time, the cynics told us that we were foolish to keep believing, that we were naïve to hope, that change was too messy or not possible at all. And if you admit it, there were some in this room here who were skeptical that everything that needed to happen would happen. The cynics were wrong. Tonight, we live in an America where ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is something that ‘don’t exist.’ We live in an America where a growing share of older generations recognize that love is love, and younger generations don’t even know what all the fuss was about. And tonight, thanks to the unbending sense of justice passed down through generations of citizens who never gave up hope that we could bring this country closer to our founding ideals — that all of us are created equal — we now live in America where our marriages are equal as well.

Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, the legal case that led the Supreme Court in June to rule narrowly in favor of gay marriage, introduced Obama at the fundraiser.