Actress Ellen Page confronted Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Washington on edge amid SCOTUS vacancy Murkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight MORE (Texas) on Friday at the Iowa State Fair about workplace protections for gay employees.

Page raised the issue of "LGBT people being fired for just strictly being gay or trans."

But the exchange between Cruz, who was grilling pork chops, and Page, who was wearing a hat and sunglasses, quickly moved toward the treatment of gays around the world.

"[The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] is executing gay people, Iran is executing homosexuals, and on the left, you hear complete silence about Iran hanging homosexuals," Cruz said.

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"That's not true," Page interjected, as he spoke.

"Christians in Russia, Christians in Uganda, Christians in Jamaica, all persecuting gays to a really, really violent extent," Page added.

“Does that trouble you at all that you draw a moral equivalence between Christians in Jamaica and radical Islamic terrorists in ISIS that are beheading children?" Cruz said.

Page said she was offering other examples of gay people being persecuted around the world.

"But ma'am, they’re not morally equivalent," Cruz said, adding that "murder is murder is murder and it is wrong, it’s wrong across the board."

After Page left, Cruz said he didn't know she was the actress in movies including "Juno" and "Inception."

Page came out last year as gay.

The exchange, captured by ABC News, came shortly before Cruz is slated to hold a rally in Des Moines on religious liberty spotlighting Christian business owners.

The Texas lawmaker has warned that people of faith are being threatened by ObamaCare's birth-control mandate and by the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.