Roy Moore Calls Being Gay ‘Abhorrent’ and Says It Should Be Illegal. The New York Times and AP Call Him a ‘Firebrand.’

Roy Moore Is a Bigot, a Homophobe, a Racist, Islamophobic, and a Birther. But Not According to at Least a Half-Dozen Mainstream Media Outlets

“Judge” Roy Moore Tuesday night won the Republican nomination to become the next U.S. Senator from Alabama, to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. Moore, who not once but twice was removed as the elected Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court for ignoring the law on separation of church and state and same-sex marriage, has a long history of using offensive language against LGBT people.

Moore has said homosexuality – or, specifically, “homosexual acts” – should be illegal, in both 2005 and a decade later, in 2015. He’s equated homosexuality with bestiality, and called it  “an inherent evil,” “a criminal lifestyle,” as well as, “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God.”

He has said gay people “practice an immoral act that less than 40 years ago was not to be mentioned in polite public circles,” and said 9/11 is God’s punishment for “legitimized sodomy.”

“For the sake of our nation’s survival,” Moore has said, “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.”

“Same-sex marriage and sodomy are,” according to Moore, “a slippery slope to polygamy and incestuous relationships.”

Judge Moore has compared the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case, that erroneously found Black people could not be U.S. citizens and had no standing to sue because they are or were slaves, to the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell. He called the marriage ruling “even worse in a sense” than Dred Scott because of how it supposedly impacts Christians.

Moore has called on Congress to impeach any Supreme Court justice who ruled in favor of the right of same-sex couples to marriage, and said that legalized same-sex marriage means “we no longer have a constitution.”

He’s claimed that same-sex marriage will “literally cause the destruction of our country.”

And that’s just for starters.

Yet, despite all those attacks on LGBT people and their civil rights, same-sex couples and the freedom to marry, the venerable New York Times and the Associated Press, CNN, and other mainstream media outlets all chose to use the exact same word to describe Judge Roy Moore in announcing his win of the GOP nomination in the race for the Alabama U.S. Senate seat.

Did they call him a “bigot”? A “racist”? A “religious extremist”? Homophobic? Anti-gay? Islamophobic? A “hate-monger”? 

No.

“Firebrand” was the word all these mainstream media outlets chose to use to describe a man who for decades has attacked LGBT people and their civil rights.

“Roy S. Moore, a firebrand former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, overcame efforts by top Republicans to rescue his rival, Senator Luther Strange, soundly defeating him on Tuesday in a special primary runoff,” The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns reported Tuesday night.

“Firebrand jurist Roy Moore on Tuesday night won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that previously belonged to Attorney General Jeff Sessions,” the AP reported.

“Alabama voters elected conservative firebrand Roy Moore as the Republican nominee to fill a U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday,” Reuters also reported Tuesday night.

“Even with President Donald Trump asking his backers to cast a ballot for Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to the in-demand seat after Jeff Sessions left to take over the Justice Department, the heat down South was with the firebrand,” CNN wrote.

President Trump “campaigned for Mr Strange, but could not save him from defeat to ultraconservative firebrand Roy Moore,” the BBC announced.

“Firebrand jurist Roy Moore won the Alabama Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, defeating an appointed incumbent backed by both President Donald Trump and deep-pocketed allies of Sen. Mitch McConnell,” NBC Chicago reported.

In January of 2016, seven months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marry, then-Chief Justice Roy Moore wrote a letter instructing all probate judges across the state, who are responsible for issuing marriage licenses, to not issue any marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

That led to his permanent suspension from the Court, which led to his resignation so he could run for the Senate.

People who compare other people’s marriages to bestiality and incest, who call them evil, criminal, abhorrent, immoral, and detestable are not “firebrands.” They are, frankly, abhorrent, immoral, detestable theocrats.

And they must be called that, so there is no room for doubt that bigots like Roy Moore, despite the ignorance of some Republicans in Alabama, never gain the respect of the rest of America. Their hate-filled attacks must never be allowed to go unchallenged. 

Do you agree?

Tell the mainstream media on Twitter:

New York Times: @nytimes  
AP: @AP
Reuters: @ReutersUS 
CNN: @CNN
NBC Chicago: @nbcchicago 
BBC: @BBCWorld 

Our thanks to GLAAD for their research

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