—While running for Senate, was credibly accused of sexual assault, child predation and molestation, while verbally attacking LGBTQ people. Insisted that “homosexual conduct should be illegal.” (33:39)
—Said the Supreme Court’s landmark marriage equality ruling is worse than the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which upheld slavery.
—Framed trans people as having “misguided confusion over their God-given chromosomes.”
—Compared situation surrounding marriage equality and religious liberty to Germany during Nazi times, repurposing a famous slogan about Hitler’s regime to apply to LGBTQ activists: “You know, we are going through something in our country that other countries have gone through. Germany went through it when the state took all power and moved in with the church….They came for the bakers, but I didn’t bake cakes. They came for the florist, but I didn’t deal in flowers. They came for a little clerk down in Kentucky by the name of Kim Davis, but hey I’m not a clerk, I have nothing to do with issuing licenses. But then they came for me, and nobody was left.” (32:50-34:15)
—Bemoaned LGBTQ-inclusive hate crimes laws, saying, “There is a dangerous trend surfacing in other countries and here in America where governments are trying to make it illegal to speak out against homosexuality, even when such an immoral lifestyle is publicly paraded in the streets.”
—Served as honorary chairman for an anti-marriage equality organization that told gay people they need to “change.”
—Said of LGBTQ people: “So-called proponents of free choice want not only to be free to live an immoral lifestyle, they also want to force everyone else to accept their abnormal behavior or face serious consequences. And they will not hesitate to use the force of government to compel others to sacrifice their religious convictions so that society will only accept their warped beliefs as legitimate.”
—Favorably compared his own anti-LGBTQ views to the extreme views of Vladimir Putin
—In front of radical anti-abortion group Operation Save America, delivered an hourlong attack on marriage equality and concluded that he “loves homosexuals” enough to “tell them the truth.” (Around 1:00:10)
—When asked directly about bestiality, said homosexuality is “the same thing” as having sex with a cow. (39:53)
—As Alabama’s chief justice, 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.”
—As a guest speaker during a church service, attacked courts that allow 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 an egg or a sperm unless you are a woman or a man…. So now we have judges that are ruling against science. (45:00)
—Also attacked transgender people: “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)
—Wrote about gay people: “Those who practice an immoral act that less than 40 years ago was not to be mentioned in polite public circles … “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.
—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.”
—Claimed God is punishing America for marriage equality and abortion.
—Sought a convention of states to ban marriage equality.