News Briefs: Winners and Haters

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Winners

Doug Jones

Democrat Doug Jones is projected to become the U.S. senator-elect for the state of Alabama, upsetting embattled Republican Roy Moore. Jones, a 63-year-old attorney from Birmingham, Ala., had never run for office before. Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992. Jones is a supporter of LGBT rights, abortion rights, the Affordable Care Act, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Human Rights Campaign

More than 160 HRC volunteers (having logged 583 hours) and 11 HRC staff worked to reach the nearly 200,000 “Equality Voters” across Alabama — a voting bloc comprised of not only the 60,000 LGBTQ voters across Alabama but allies HRC has identified. Following election results, HRC President Chad Griffin said, “Tonight, in rejecting avowed bigot Roy Moore, Alabama voters solidified once and for all that attacking and demonizing the LGBTQ community is a sure-fire way to get yourself beat on Election Day.”

Christine Nairn

Following coming out publicly, in a blog post, pro soccer player with the Seattle Reign, Christine Nairn wrote, “At 27 years old, there are many things that I do not know yet, and there are many things that aren’t ‘normal’ about me…but the funny thing is, the more I find out what is not ‘normal’ about me, the more excited I am to live my life.”

Haters

Roy Moore and white evangelicals

According to Washington Post, Roy Moore’s failed run for Alabama’s Senate seat tested white evangelicals’ allegiance to the Republican Party. Would they vote for a candidate who shares their conservative views on social issues even though he’s accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women? Exit polls suggest they did just that, with 80 percent of white evangelicals who voted for him. Moore’s view is that America should ultimately be governed by “biblical law,” and under that law, homosexuality would be punished.

Donald Trump

The Commander-in-Chief outright lied once again to the American public saying he knew Moore would lose the Alabama Senate race. On Twitter today he initially congratulated Doug Jones and immediately dissed him, tweeting “The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. ”

Modern Day Nazis

A youth club for LGBT people was recently targeted with vile fascist propaganda. Dundee LGBT Youth Centre, in Scotland, had its windows covered with homophobic and serophobic messages. Posters plastered on their front window read: “AIDS isn’t a disease / It’s a cure for faggotry / Hail AIDS!” The posters come from a group called System Resistance Network, who describe themselves as “Nazi.”