Tag: Alabama

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (image via AL/Sec Of State site) A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama told supporters over the weekend the problem with the United States today is Americans are too “preoccupied with homosexual activities” and “the wife swap shows.” John Merrill, currently serving as Alabama’s Secretary of State, is one of many Republicans looking to unseat Sen. Doug Jones (D) in the 2020 election cycle. The senate seat was held for 20 years by former Donald...

The Secretary of State of Alabama said in a speech that people today are “too interested in homosexual activities,” and that’s why there isn’t any good TV anymore. John Merrill, who is in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, was speaking at the Dekalb County Republican Breakfast Club’s meeting this past Saturday. “That’s what we’ve allowed to happen,” he said, according to the local publication Yellowhammer News, responding to a question about how American pop culture has changed. He complained that...

The 2019 Emmy nominations were announced yesterday and queer artists made a strong showing. Season One of Pose scored big in major categories, as did the lesbian thriller Killing Eve, Rupaul’s Drag Race, and Russian Doll, the surreal Netflix series co-created by out-lesbian Leslye Headland. Some of the LGBTQ artists who scored nominations include Billy Porter, Ellen Degeneres, Kate McKinnon, and Laverne Cox, just to name a few. All that is great! Unless you’re Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill. Merrill, who is currently running a 2020...

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R), who announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate last week, claims Americans are too “preoccupied with homosexual activities” and “the wife swap shows” and it is ruining everything from TV to the country’s moral direction. Merrill, one of multiple Republicans looking to challenge Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) in 2020, made the controversial comments over the weekend at a town hall event in Dekalb County, according to the Yellowhammer News. One attendee asked Merrill about the...

An Alabama deputy who resigned after making homophobic comments in response to the suicide of an Alabama teen has been hired in the next town over. Deputy Jeff Graves stepped down as a sheriff’s deputy from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office after posting comments in an article about 15-year-old Nigel Shelby, who died by suicide after being bullied about his sexual orientation. “Liberty, Guns, Bible, Trump, BBQ. That’s my kind of LGBTQ movement,” Graves wrote in a now-deleted post on a...

A hair salon received a threatening note not about its rainbow flag. Issam Bajalia owns Salon U in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. He said that he had just returned home from World Pride in New York City when he found a note taped to his business telling him to remove his rainbow flag “before it is too late.” Facebook/Ryan Taylor THIS IS NOT SAN FRANCISCO OR DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM THIS IS HOMEWOOD WHICH IS A RELIGIOUS AND FAMILY CITY WE SUGGEST THAT...

A pastor in Alabama at an anti-LGBTQ church was arrested after confessing to molesting an underage boy. John Martin, 41, was the lead pastor of the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Florence, Alabama, until he resigned on June 23 amid allegations of sexual abuse. When he resigned, he confessed to his congregation that he had sexually abused a boy under the age of 16, which he referred to as an “affair.” He said that he had confessed to his wife already. He...

A group of drag queens were all set to perform at a Montgomery, Alabama restaurant in honor of Pride last weekend when police raided the eatery just minutes before the big show. The Touch of Soul Café had planned to host the event the night of June 29. The restaurant kicked off the Pride party at 11 pm, with plans to continue until 2 am. Owner Geri Moss believed she had the right to keep the restaurant open until that hour...

In an inflammatory public Facebook post, Phil Benson — Republican treasurer of Mobile County, Alabama — called the LGBTQ community “freaking queers” and later told the media, “ gay people are offensive to me.” He has not apologized for his comments. Benson left the comment on a county Republican Party Facebook page. It has since been deleted by the page’s moderator. He made the comment on an article about Jack Phillips, the owner of Denver’s Masterpiece Cakeshop bakery who got involved...

Roy Moore, the accused child molester and anti-LGBTQ nut who in 2017 lost Republicans a U.S. Senate seat in red state Alabama, has announced that he’ll be running for the same seat in 2020. Republicans are dead set against his candidacy, and between all the in-fighting and the fact that Moore is an awful bigot, we don’t know if we’re delighted or terrified. Let’s examine our feelings. You may recall that Moore used to be an Alabama Supreme Court Justice,...

Accused child molester and former Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore has announced he will run again in the next election. Moore, a former Chief Justice for the Alabama State Supreme Court, was removed from office twice and lost the election to Senator Doug Jones, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state in decades. The GOP sees a second Moore run as a move that would endanger their chances of defeating Democrat Doug Jones. The Republicans, who control the...

A small town mayor has come under fire for advocating genocide against LGBTQ people. Mark Chambers is the mayor of Carbon Hill, Alabama, a town with a population of around 2000. On Facebook, Chambers posted a meme that denounced “homosexuals,” “transvestites,” “baby killers,” and “socialists” for having the audacity to have opinions that differ from his. “We live in a society where homosexuals lecture us on morals, transvestites lecture us on human biology, baby killers lecture us on human rights and socialists...

Wanda Sykes filled in for Ellen yesterday, and she opened the show with a friendly “Hello, white ladies.” Sykes is an actress and comedian, known for her stand-up and her roles in Blackish, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. She’s also a lesbian and is married to a woman. In her opening segment, she said that she’s glad to be on The Ellen Degeneres Show without being asked “personal questions” by Ellen, like “How are you?” Sykes did...

Alabama’s on a roll. First it was abortion. Then it was gay rat weddings. Now, state lawmakers have moved on to marriage licenses. Both houses of Alabama’s legislature have approved a bill that replaces “marriage licenses” with “marriage certificates.” The purpose? To satisfy homophobic county probate judges who are morally opposed to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Right now, when a couple wants to get married, a county probate judge must issue them a marriage license. Under the new law, the judge will only have...