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HRC denounces Merrillโ€™s anti-LGBTQ comments

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group, released a statement denouncing Alabama Secretary of State and Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Merrillโ€™s recent comments saying Americans are โ€œpreoccupied with homosexual activities.โ€ 

Merrill told supporters at a town hall over the weekend that the countryโ€™s morality is dwindling because of changes in pop culture and television, saying people are โ€œtoo interested in anything that is not uplifting, edifying. Theyโ€™re too busy being preoccupied with homosexual activities and the wife swap shows.โ€ 

Merrill said there are no shows on air that are โ€œbased on biblical foundations. โ€ฆShows that promote family and culture with a father, a mother and children based on biblical teachings and biblical principles on which our nation was founded.โ€

In a statement, HRC Project One America Director Meghan Kissell called Merrillโ€™s comments an attack on the LGBTQ community. 

โ€œThis attack on LGBTQ people and our values only further underscores the fact that the Alabama Senate Republican primary is becoming a race to the bottom and a competition for who is the most virulently anti-LGBTQ,โ€ Kissell said. โ€œAlabamians deserve a leader who fights for the equality of everyone and every community, not someone who would feel more comfortable in Americaโ€™s oppressive past.โ€

Along with Merrill, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, state Rep. Arnold Mooney and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore are among the field of Republicans also running to unseat Sen. Doug Jones next year.

 

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Jessa Reid Bolling is a reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter and graduate of The University of Alabama with a B.A. in journalism and political science.

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