Father of gay Alabama teen who killed herself pleads: ‘Don’t vote for Roy Moore’
An Alabama father has strong words for disgraced judge and US Senate candidate Roy Moore after the tragic death of his gay daughter.
Nathan Mathis, a farmer from Northern Alabama, gave an impassioned speech outside of a Roy Moore campaign event in the memory of his deceased daughter.
Holding up a sign of his daughter, Patti, Mathis stood outside the rally in Birmingham Alabama last night pleaded with the rally attendees to change their vote due to Moore’s anti-gay stance.
“Judge Roy Moore called my daughter a pervert for one reason, just because she was gay.” Mathis said to NBC News.
Roy Moore at his final campaign rally before election night (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Speaking to the Washington Post, Mathis continued: “She was gay and didn’t want to be gay.
“I was taught that gay was wrong. I said bad things to her when I found out she was gay. But nothing was wrong with her. Who was wrong? It was me.”
He said: “We got today a man running for US Senate. He called my daughter a pervert just because she was gay. That’s wrong.”
Mathis then addressed the multiple allegations of sexual assault and child molestation against Roy Moore, with at least nine women alleging that Moore pursued them as teenagers, including one case with a 14-year-old.
(Getty)
He continued: “If she was a pervert, what about him going with them young girls? Him, a 32-year-old going out with a 14 to 17-year-old girls. What does that make him? A sorry pervert.”
Mathis’ daughter Patti died by suicide at the age of 23, and whilst Mathis does not directly blame Moore for her death, he has said that the impact of Moore’s virulent anti-gay stance, and similar anti-gay stances upset his daughter greatly.
“I cannot believe that anybody in Alabama would do away with their moral beliefs to vote for someone just because they’re going to think they’re gonna vote a certain way in Congress. I cannot believe that,” Mathis said.
“This vote tomorrow you’re gonna make, I’m not saying who to vote for, I’m just saying, don’t vote for Roy Moore. He ain’t fit to be in office.”
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Moore, a former judge, was removed from the judges bench after repeated ethics violations, frequently involving the prevention of marriage equality in the state.
During his Trump- endorsed campaign, the 70-year-old Republican candidate has made headlines for being one of the most homophobic politicians in modern American history.
Moore has previously said that LGBT people are to blame for the allegations against him, has said that homosexuality should be illegal and that transgender people do not have rights.
Despite this string of allegations and outright discrimination, polls are currently inconclusive as to whether Moore will win the US Senate seat or whether his Democratic opponent Doug Jones will win in the traditionally Republican state.
Watch Mathis’ full interview here:
