Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore on
Wednesday claimed that transgender people have no rights.
Moore, who won his state's GOP primary
despite President Donald Trump's backing of Senator Luther Strange,
criticized his opponent, Democrat Doug Jones, for embracing
“transgender issues and transgender rights in the military”
during a press conference to announce the endorsement of 13 Alabama
sheriffs in Montgomery, the Montgomery
Advertiser reported.
“The transgenders don’t have
rights,” said Moore, a vocal opponent of LGBT rights. “They’ve
never been denominated as having rights by the U.S. Supreme Court. He
believes in transgender bathrooms and transgenders in the military. I
disagree with him 100 percent.”
Moore's comments came a day before The
Washington Post posted an explosive story about Moore
initiating sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in 1979. Moore was
32 at time.
Moore responded to the allegations in a
statement given to CNN: “This garbage is the very definition of
fake news and intentional defamation.”
Earlier this month, Moore
called on Congress to impeach the federal judge who blocked Trump's
ban on transgender troops. And last month, he said that the
Supreme Court justices who found in Obergefell
that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry
should be booted from the bench.
Moore was twice removed as chief
justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal court orders
that conflicted with his religious beliefs, including defying the
Supreme Court on marriage equality after it struck down state
marriage bans nationwide.