Disgraced former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore won his primary runoff election against interim Senator Luther Strange last night in Alabama and that should concern every LGBT person (and ally) in America. If Moore can beat democrat Doug Jones in December, he will become America’s most anti-LGBT national politician.
Moore was removed from office as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court twice: once for installing and refusing a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument he had installed in the court building. The second time, after he was re-elected to a seat on the court, he was removed for instructing local officials to ignore the US Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
Related: Roy Moore: ‘No court has authority to redefine what God proposed in Genesis’
Our friends over at GLAAD have put together this handy roundup of Moore’s worst anti-LGBT atrocities and it’s a doozy. Note that these are only his anti-LGBT statements and don’t include his history of sexist and racist comments.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
- Said homosexuality is “the same thing” as having sex with a cow (39:53).
- Insisted that “homosexual conduct should be illegal” in a 2005 interview (33:39); and again in 2015.
- Wrote into a 2002 opinion his belief that homosexuality is “a criminal lifestyle,” an “inherent evil against which children must be protected,” and an “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated.”
- Attacked courts that allowed putting “a lesbian as a husband,” saying “science dictates that a man can’t be a woman, and a woman can’t be a man. You can dress like them, you can use hormones, you can change your body, you can think—but you can’t produce and egg or a sperm unless you are a woman or a man…so now we have judges that are ruling against science.” (45:00).
- Targeted the transgender community: “We do have a right to tell them what their sin is. We do have a right to say this is wrong. This is deteriorating this country. Now we have a right to think we’re the opposite sex if we want to be. Your mamas and daddies didn’t think that. Nobody in here had a mama or daddy who thought that. You’re seeing little bitty kids now, it’s the latest thing. You know, a nation that turns away from God and his law suffers the consequences.” (55:30)
- Referred to gay people as “Those who practice an immoral act that less than 40 years ago was not to be mentioned in polite public circles,” and insists that “For the sake of our nation’s survival, it is time to voice our strongest opposition to homosexual conduct because morality still matters, not only in the military, but also in society at large.”
- Insisted that “sodomy was deemed an abomination by the Creator” and that “Same-sex marriage and sodomy are, simply stated, a slippery slope to polygamy and incestuous relationships.”
- Said LGBTQ people “flaunt their perversion in public parades, ‘gay’ television shows and Hollywood movies.”
- Compared Dred Scott and Obergefell opinions, arguing that the latter marriage ruling is “even worse in a sense” than the one upholding slavery because of marriage equality’s supposed ramifications on Christians (13:30).
- Suggested that Congress should impeach SCOTUS justices who decided in favor of marriage equality (19:00).
- Suggested that 9/11 was God’s punishment for things like “legitimized sodomy.”
- Filed an amicus brief arguing at length that “homosexual conduct has always been and continues to be immoral and should not be protected or sanctioned by law.”
- Filed amicus brief arguing “the presence of homosexuals in the armed forces will weaken the armed forces’ ability to defend this nation by admitting into the armed forces people who engage in conduct that is both immoral and unhealthy, and that the armed forces budget and resources will be strained by having to pay for and treat the many unhealthy conditions that arise out of the homosexual lifestyle.
- Wrote letter to Alabama’s governor condemning the 2003 repeal of criminal sodomy laws and all that followed after.
- Compared marriage equality to counterfeit money.
- Argued that marriage equality would “literally cause the destruction of our country.”
- Said marriage equality means “we no longer have a constitution.”
- Sought a convention of states to ban marriage equality.
If you’d like to help defeat Moore in the general election, you can donate to Jones’ campaign via ActBlue.
