Alabama Senate Contender Roy Moore: "Homosexual Conduct Should Be Illegal"

Roy Moore

Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and current U.S. Senate candidate, said in a 2005 interview that "homosexual conduct" should be illegal.

While it doesn't come as a surprise (Moore was ousted from his position on Alabama's high court for failing to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling which made same-sex marriage the law of the land), this is exchange was Moore's most direct public response to the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling which struck down anti-sodomy laws.

From CNN:

Moore, a hardline conservative Christian and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, made the comments in an interview with liberal commentator Bill Press on C-SPAN2's After Words. Moore appeared on the show to publicize a book he had just written about his expulsion from the court for refusing to take down a monument to the Ten Commandments.

During the interview, Press asked Moore if he believed homosexual conduct should still be illegal after the 2003 landmark Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas that struck down a state law banning sodomy, rendering similar laws across the country unconstitutional.

"What I think is that it was illegal under the law, that the Supreme Court usurped the role of the legislature and ruled something about our moral law that is improper, and that's what we're finding the Supreme Court and the federal district courts are doing daily," Moore responded. "They've usurped the moral prerogative, now, if you want--"

Press cut in, saying, "I don't understand your answer. I think it's a yes or no. Do you think that homosexual--homosexuality, or homosexual conduct should be illegal today? That's a yes or no question."

"Homosexual conduct should be illegal, yes," Moore answered.

In that same interview, Moore also compared gay sex to bestiality.

Press asked why the government should ban what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes, Moore compared gay sex to bestiality.

"Just because it's done behind closed doors, it can still be prohibited by state law. Do you know that bestiality, the relationship between man and beast is prohibited in every state?" Moore asked.

"Did I ask you about having sex with a cow?" Press responded.

"No you didn't," Moore said.

"Or a horse, or a dog?" Press asked.

"It's the same thing," Moore said.

"No, it's not. You mean homosexuality is the same thing as bestiality?" Press asked.

"It is a moral precept upon which this country was founded," Moore said.

CNN also points out similar comments Moore made in a 2015 YouTube interview with user Lone Star Q. During that interview he was asked if he still thought homosexuality should be illegal.

Moore was direct, saying, "I think homosexuality should be illegal," Moore said. "Sodomy was declared illegal by the United States Supreme Court in 1987, it said there was no right under the constitution to enlarge the fundamental rights of homosexuals."

Moore currently leads in the polls in Alabama even though Donald Trump is backing Moore's opponent, place-holder Sen. Luther Strange.