The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court has done everything possible to delay the arrival of marriage equality in this state, sowing confusion and disorder rather than let the people marry whomever they wish. Last week, Roy “Ten Commandments” Moore went on Jorge Ramos’s Fusion Channel show America to demonstrate his willful ignorance by proffering that LGBTs are “free” to marry a person of the opposite sex, after all.
Moore dismissed comparisons between gay rights and civil rights, saying they are not the same.
“You’re talking about sexual preference, that’s a completely different matter. It’s not a civil right to choose what sex you wanna be.”
“Do you think that people choose to be gay or not to be gay?” Ramos asked.
“I’m saying, that’s what you choose. That’s not the way you were born. … You’re born male or female. You can’t choose to be a woman by transgender.”
“Did you choose to be heterosexual?”
“I didn’t choose it, that’s the way I am,” Moore answered.
According to Moore, there is nothing innate about sexual identity. In his world, being gay is a choice, whereas his straight-ness is just “the way I am.” This is exactly like a right-handed person assuming that everyone else must be exactly like them, so why bother making left-handed scissors? And Moore is utterly incorrect about gender dysphoria. It’s a condition recognized by the medical community, with its own specific diagnosis. Acceptance is still uneven in American society, but as far as the doctors are all concerned, sexual reassignment is a legitimate therapy.
Does Roy Moore intend to get between doctors and patients over this blinkered view of his? For that matter, when Moore says that homosexuality is a choice, he’s ignoring the science which has found genes that apparently influence our sexuality. When did Judge Moore become a geneticist?
The answer, of course, is that Moore is not a scientist or a doctor. He’s just a bigoted, ignorant redneck — one with an unusual amount of power, thanks to his cult of appeal among other bigoted, ignorant rednecks. When he dismisses the comparison of LGBT issues to the Civil Rights Era, it’s because he would dismiss the Civil Rights Acts too if he could. Roy Moore is all about enforcing his cisgendered lifestyle on everyone else because to him, doing so feels…well, so natural.
And naturally, a dad like Roy Moore makes sure that his children share his values:
The son of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was arrested Sunday for drug possession near the scene of an attempted break-in, court records show.
Caleb Moore, 24, was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana.
Roy Moore confirmed his son’s arrest but declined further comment, describing it as a personal matter.
In January, Caleb Moore told AL.com that he has done things he isn’t proud of and acted “young and immature,” but “that’s why God gives us salvation.”
“I’ve done nothing more than any other college kids,” he told AL.com “Because of who I am, it gets blown out of proportion. Since then I’ve got in a closer walk with the Lord. Whatever anyone says about me, it doesn’t bother me. The people who know me and know what’s true can really see what’s going on here and see through critics of my dad.”
Judge Moore thinks that who you love and include in your family is definitely his business, but his family member’s criminal habits are definitely none of yours. He thinks that gayness is a choice, but a totally different kind of choice than the one his son made to smoke dope with shady people, because the one group does not get any protections under the rule of law while his son enjoys all the privileges that the law can afford an affluent three-time loser. See how that works?
It’s a good thing that Caleb isn’t transgender, or else his dad would probably put him out on the street and just tell people he was dead.