Anti-Gay Alabama Man Publicly Mocks Widower Speaking About the Husband He Lost (Video)

Yes, These Actions Must Be Publicly Condemned

Earlier this week supporters of Roy Moore awaited the end of a hearing that ultimately will decide if the Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice will retain his title – and his job – or if he will, for the second time, be stripped of it. Moore ordered Alabama probate judges in January to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and is now essentially on trial for it.

After the hearing on Monday, Moore and his Liberty Counsel attorney, Mat Staver, came out and delivered speeches, talked to the press, and insisted to supporters the Chief Justice had done nothing wrong. Afterwards, the Human Rights Campaign also held a press conference, and among the speakers was Dr. Paul Hard.

Dr. Hard was married in Massachusetts and very shortly afterwards, lost his husband, David Fancher, in a tragic auto accident. He has spent years fighting his mother in law in court for a portion of the estate she believes she is entitled to because she does not recognize her son’s marriage to Dr. Hard. 

As Hard was speaking about his late husband, several of the supporters of Chief Justice Moore came over and stood near the podium. One decided to openly mock Dr. Hard as he shared his grief with those who had actually come to hear and support him and other speakers.

In the short video clip below, Dr. Hard can be heard saying, “following the death of my husband, two months after our marriage.”

In the background clearly can be seen a man in a blue sport coat first with what appears to be an angry look on his face, which then morphs into incredulity, then a mocking smirk and laughter. As he brushes his hair and pulls his ear he says, “You can’t have a husband.”

“You can’t have a husband.”

Dr. Hard, in fact, sadly, no longer has his husband. 

On Wednesday, Alabama opinion writer John Archibald weighed in on the man who mocked Dr. Hard.

“How can one stand under the banner and glory of God and laugh at another man’s death?,” Archibald asked. “How?”

“I don’t care what you think of gay people or gay marriage or suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and his efforts to derail the ‘agenda of the homosexual movement.’ Believe what you want,” he challenged. “I care about the cruelty I saw this week, on the steps of the Alabama Supreme Court. I can’t move beyond it,” Archibald writes.

He notes that the speakers at HRC’s press conference, including Dr. Hard, “were interrupted time and again by Moore supporters, bullied and criticized and demeaned. On the steps of the highest court in Alabama.”

Archibald says he “was struck…by the malice and brutality” of the man who was mocking Dr. Hard.

How can any man, no matter his position on Roy Moore or any issue, stand before another and mock his pain?

How can one stand under the banner of God and laugh at another man’s death?

How — in the name of God — can one deride genuine grief?

In the name of God.

I don’t know how Roy Moore’s ethics case will turn out. In truth I don’t from a legal standpoint know how it should turn out.

But the type of religion spewed on those courthouse steps — a type long on the Shalt Nots and woefully short on the Blessed Bes — looks nothing like Jesus.

There’s also another important element here.

Roy Moore founded a Christian-based legal organization, the Foundation for Moral Law, which represents Dr. Hard’s mother in law. And so that makes this all the more offensive.

Image: Screenshot via John Archibald/Vine
Hat tip: Queerty