The 9 homophobes and transphobes who we watched lose this year
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It’s been a painful year for LGBT people in many ways.
More transgender people have been killed in the US than in any other year on record, homophobic attacks have soared in England and Wales since the Brexit vote, and Donald Trump has started off his presidency with a host of anti-LGBT moves.
And just to rub it in, after passing same-sex marriage, Bermuda then moved to reverse that decision.
But there have been some rays of light, some precious gems of schadenfreude to cling to.
These have come in the form of watching the downfall of transphobes and homophobes, many of whom have long had it coming.
Roy Moore
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Kicking off this list, it’s none other than a disgraced former judge who was so terrible that he ran as a Republican candidate for the US Senate seat of Alabama – and lost.
That’s right – in the deep-red state of Alabama.
What did he do that was so bad, he ended up losing by more than 20,000 votes?
Well, he said that “homosexual conduct” should be illegal.
He also said he “doesn’t know” if gay people should be executed.
The 70-year-old also compared gay sex to bestiality and said that decriminalising homosexuality was “terrible” and “devastating”.
At the very same event, Moore said that the legalisation of same-sex marriage would lead to laws allowing “one man to marry ten women or a man to marry his two daughters.”
And just to hammer home how homophobic he is, he compared those who follow same-sex marriage laws to Nazis.
That was all before he was accused of committing sexual misconduct and child molestation against nine victims, including a 14-year-old.
And who did he blame for these allegations? Why, LGBT people, of course.
He won’t be taking a seat in the Senate next year, and that’s something to be celebrated.
Ralph Shortey
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Shortey, another homophobic Republican, was a state Senator and a senior member of Donald Trump’s primary campaign team in Oklahoma.
But he quit earlier this year after he was arrested on child prostitution charges.
The ‘traditional values’ politician, who is married with children, was caught in a motel room with a 17-year-old boy who, according to authorities, Shortey had hired as a prostitute.
Last month, Shortey pleaded guilty to a child sex trafficking offense for soliciting sex from the boy. He now faces a maximum of life in prison.
In exchange for this plea, federal prosecutors have dropped three counts of child pornography against the former politician.
The two-term state senator, who was elected on a family values platform, consistently voted in favour of bills which would harm LGBT people.
Bob Marshall
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Last month, Danica Roem became the first trans person to be elected as a state official in Virginia – by beating a virulent transphobe.
That transphobe was Bob Marshall, a 26-year incumbent who proposed a bill which would have restricted which bathrooms trans people could use.
The Republican also co-authored the state’s now-defunct constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Marshall, a huge opponent of LGBT rights across the board, refused to debate Roem or refer to her as a woman in the run-up to yesterday’s election, calling her “him” on campaign flyers.
In August, he challenged a reporter who referred to Roem as female, asking: “Why do you call Danica a female? Did Danica’s DNA change?”
The Virginian journalist and heavy metal vocalist made Marshall pay in the election, defeating him by 1,700 votes – a margin of 54% to 46%.
Donald Trump
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A collection of anti-LGBT Republicans losers would, of course, not be complete without the current Commander-in-chief.
Sure, he beat Hillary Clinton – despite getting three million votes fewer than her – in last year’s presidential election.
But, as well as endorsing losing candidates in Alabama in the shape of Luther Strange and Roy Moore, he has also repeatedly been blocked from banning transgender people from serving in the military.
Trump sparked anger by announcing in July on Twitter that he wanted to impose such a ban.
Reversing a decision made under President Barack Obama, Trump claimed that the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail”.
But judges have ruled against Trump in both Washington, DC and Maryland.
And now, despite efforts to the contrary, he will be forced to let trans people join the military on January 1.
The Trump administration can hold back the tide of progress no longer.
Harvey Weinstein
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The disgraced Hollywood producer has now been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 50 women – and homophobia allegations have followed close behind.
Cara Delevingne claimed he told her she would have no future in Hollywood if she was open about her sexuality and relationships with other women.
Weinstein, she wrote, said that if she “was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public,” she would never get a role playing a straight character or “make it as an actress in Hollywood.”
And earlier this month, Salma Hayek claimed that Weinstein forced her to include a lesbian sex scene in her film Frida.
The Oscar-nominated actress and filmmaker alleged that she rejected a number of advances from Weinstein.
She said he attempted to get her to take a shower with him, perform oral sex, and get naked with another woman.
Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott (Stefan Postles/Getty Images)
In Australia, in the midst of a poisonous debate over same-sex marriage which led to hundreds of homophobic attacks, a de facto leader of the No campaign emerged.
Abbott laid the ground for this informal position with years of apocalyptic predictions about equal marriage.
And during the vote, he encouraged people to vote No because “children should have both a mother and a father”, lashing out at “transgender marriage” and “radical gay sex education”.
Sinking to a low point in the campaign, he at one point suggested it would be “best” for his gay sister’s children to be raised by a straight couple.
The ex-leader also demanded censorship of a Macklemore performance because of the singer’s gay anthem, Same Love.
He even told anti-LGBT lobbyists that their movement “should continue” beyond the vote.
After same-sex marriage was legalised and Abbott was well and truly beaten, he u-turned.
Abbott said that equal marriage would “strengthen our social fabric” – just weeks after insisting it would “strain the social fabric”.
Margaret Court
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The tennis legend sparked controversy in May when she said she was boycotting Qantas Airways because of its support for same-sex marriage.
From there, it just got worse for Court, who has won more grand slams than any other player.
Condemnation from lesbian grand slam champion Martina Navratilova, Australian number one Sam Stosur and British number one Andy Murray followed, but she did not back down.
In fact, Court – who has a stadium named after her at the Australian Open grand slam – doubled down, comparing LGBT activists to Hitler and saying trans children were influenced by the devil.
She also complained that gay people were persecuting her.
She even said there was a militant gay conspiracy acting against her.
And inevitably, Court came out against same-sex marriage ahead of the postal vote.
She said: “If we have to vote, let us vote ‘no’ to gay marriage for the sake of Australia, our children and our children’s children.”
The result of all this homophobia was her being voted out of the Cottesloe Tennis Club in Perth where she stood as the vice-patron for years.
She also said that if same-sex marriage was legalised, there would be “no Mother’s Day, there will be no Father’s Day, there will be no Easter, there will be no Christmas.”
That, it seems, has not happened.
Robert Mugabe
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Mugabe presided over a regime which carried out horrifying homophobic purges, targeting gay men and women with extortion, arrest, and even torture.
He claimed that homosexuality was a filthy disease, and insisted Zimbabwe would “never, never, never” decriminalise homosexuality.
When the country suffered one of its worst droughts in decades last year, Mugabe held a lavish birthday party – at which he vowed to reject international aid that requires Zimbabwe to accept human rights laws and stop persecuting gay people.
During his 2013 inauguration address, Mugabe urged young Zimbabweans to “damn” homosexuality, calling it a “white disease”.
He added: “That [homosexuality] destroys nations, apart from it being a filthy, filthy disease.”
Ahead of the election, he said that gays should be castrated.
Throughout his election campaign vocal attacks on the country’s gay population were a prominent feature. In one attack he urged for the heads of gay men to be chopped off, and described them as being worse than pigs.
He said: “If you take men and lock them in a house for five years and tell them to come up with two children and they fail to do that, then we will chop off their heads.
“This thing [homosexuality] seeks to destroy our lineage by saying John and John should wed, Maria and Maria should wed.
“Imagine this son born out of an African father, [US President Barack] Obama says if you want aid, you should accept the homosexuality practice.
“Aah, we will never do that.”
He also described homosexuals as worse than animals because pigs “know who to mate with.”
He was not such a fan of Obama.
Mugabe said of him: “I’ve just concluded since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance, thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington, get down on my knee, and ask [Obama’s] hand in marriage.
“I can’t understand how this people dare to defy Christ’s explicit orders as our Lord prohibited mankind from sodomy.”
The despotic leader was deposed last month, after 30 years in office – and not a moment too soon.
Josh Rivers
(Twitter/_joshrivers)
The former editor of Gay Times had only been in his position for just three weeks when it was discovered that he had tweeted dozens of hideously offensive posts.
Rivers tossed offensive slurs at trans people, lesbians, women in general, Jews, Asians, Africans, the homeless, anyone he thought was “fat” or a “retard” – and old people.
“Look here, tranny. 1) you look like a crackhead 2) YOU’RE A TRANNY & 3) your wig doesn’t deserve a mention,” read one particularly horrific post.
The 31-year-old sent these tweets in 2010 and 2011, when he was in his mid-20s.
The day after the tweets were revealed, he was fired.
Good riddance.
And so, a Merry Christmas to all – except those listed above. Here’s to more schadenfreude at the expense of homophobes and transphobes in the new year.
