Alabama's Only Openly Gay Legislator Speaks Out about Homophobic Roy Moore

Rep. Patricia Todd

The Washington Examiner reports:

Alabama’s only openly gay legislator says she’s irritated to hear fellow state officials defend Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused Thursday of romantically pursuing minors when he was in his 30s.

“I hate to say this, but men need to shut up defending him and listen to the women's pain,” said Rep. Patricia Todd, a Democrat who Moore has dismissed in the past as a “liberal lesbian legislator.”

“The cover seems to be ‘if it is true’ and I am so disappointed in my Republican peers who continue to support him,” Todd told the Washington Examiner. “We have seen this too many times, a so-called Christian falling from that pedestal.”

Todd said she knows their reaction would be different "if this had been Obama."

A long list of Republicans in the U.S. Senate has said Moore should stand down “if” the allegations are true, and some Alabama politicians said they would support him even if the claims are true.

Moore, suspended last year as Alabama’s supreme court chief justice for instructing authorities to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage, says four women who spoke to the Washington Post are lying.

See full Washington Examiner story here.

The Washington Post, which broke the story about Moore molesting children on November 9, 2017, also reports the following:

There may be no more bigger critic of Senate candidate Roy Moore and his beliefs than the LGBT community.

And the feeling is reciprocated. The former Alabama Supreme Court judge thinks homosexuality should be illegal, comparing it to bestiality and calling it a “crime against nature.”

Alabama's gay community has been speaking out against Moore and his politics for years, prior to his attempt to go to Washington. His Senate run has given the community even more reason to be vocal.

In September, Eva Kendrick, Alabama state director for the Human Rights Campaign, said Moore has no place trying to represent the state's citizens in the nation's capital:

“Given Roy Moore’s track record of flouting laws and attacking the civil rights of LGBTQ people across our state, we already know he won’t stand up for all Alabamians when it matters most. In the run-up to December 12, we urge every fair-minded person across Alabama to say #NoMoore and reject the politics of bigotry and hate.”

See the full story with more reactions from LGBTQ leaders here.

Another Washington Post article list 13 "righteous" statements Moore has made about sex and morality. See that article here.