--- title: Roy Moore Likely Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal: Spokesman description: Roy Moore "probably" still thinks homosexual conduct should be illegal, the Republican Alabama Senate candidate's campaign spokesman said canonical: https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-12T22:50:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:38:03.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says og:description: "Its just a sin, thats what it is" og:url: https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0502a820c1689c2/6988f46b7cdbac6881d5b32b/roy-moore.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Alabama Special Election candidate Roy Moore og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says twitter:description: "Its just a sin, thats what it is" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0502a820c1689c2/6988f46b7cdbac6881d5b32b/roy-moore.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 01:09 video:published: 2017-12-13 section: politics topics: Roy Moore, Alabama Senate race, homosexuality, religious morality, biblical law, same-sex relations, Washington DC politics, campaign statements genre: interview, news clip tones: combative, evasive, moralistic, defensive emotions: defensiveness (high), frustration (medium), certainty (medium) sentiment: negative audience: Alabama voters, political news audiences, religious voters, LGBTQ community, general news readers people: Roy Moore, Kayla Moore, Jake Tapper organizations: Republican Party content_suitability: hate [00:00-00:22]; politics [00:00-01:09]; sexual content [00:14-00:22] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=118881ab-3ac1-4096-8d2f-eec4aa0c77ce&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says [Watch (HLS stream): Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/O3W6ohMI.m3u8) (1:09)  _Published 2017-12-13. Roy Moore “probably” still thinks homosexuality should be illegal, the Republican Alabama Senate candidate’s campaign spokesman said Tuesday._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary A clip in which a campaign spokesman is pressed on whether Roy Moore, a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, believes homosexual conduct should be illegal. The spokesman says Moore probably does and argues that homosexuality is a sin grounded in religious texts. The exchange turns to broader claims about morality, Washington, and Moore's marriage. ## Key points - The spokesman says Roy Moore probably thinks homosexual conduct should be illegal when asked whether he does. (00:03) - Asked about punishment for same-sex relations, the spokesman says it is 'just a sin' and that it is what religious teachings say. (00:22) - The spokesman cites the Bible as the basis for the view that homosexuality is a sin. (00:25) - The spokesman argues that people discarding two or three thousand years of history are making their own man-made rules. (00:36) - The spokesman criticizes people in Washington DC for 'winging it' and 'fooling with women they shouldn't be fooling with.' (00:51) - The spokesman says Roy Moore loves his wife and that this is clear on television. (00:56) - The spokesman concludes that the country needs to get back to moral law. (01:05) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:22] Questioning on whether homosexuality should be illegal. The interviewer presses the spokesman on whether Roy Moore thinks homosexual conduct should be illegal and what the punishment would be. - [00:22 to 00:51] Spokesman cites religious and biblical grounds. The spokesman describes homosexuality as a sin taught by churches, synagogues, mosques, and the Bible, and criticizes discarding history for man-made rules. - [00:51 to 01:09] Morality, Washington, and Moore's marriage. The spokesman criticizes Washington politicians, defends Moore's marriage, and calls for a return to moral law. ## Key quotes - [00:03] spokesman: "Probably." - [00:22] spokesman: "It's just a sin, okay?" - [00:36] spokesman: "You people want to take the whole two or three thousand years of our history and you all just want to throw it out the window." - [00:51] spokesman: "We got too many people winging it up there." - [01:05] spokesman: "we need to get back to moral law." ## Questions this video answers - Does Roy Moore think homosexual conduct should be illegal? [00:00] - What should the punishment be for same-sex sexual relations? [00:14] - What is the basis for the view that homosexuality is a sin? [00:22] - Does Roy Moore love his wife? [00:56] - What does the spokesman say is the country's problem? [01:01] ## Content suitability - hate [00:00-00:22]: Discussion of criminalizing homosexual conduct and describing it as a sin, which may be sensitive to LGBTQ audiences. - politics [00:00-01:09]: Political campaign content about a Senate candidate's views. - sexual content [00:14-00:22]: References to same-sex sexual relations and extramarital relations.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:38 PM UTCPublished: Dec 12, 2017 10:50 PM UTC Roy Moore “probably” still thinks homosexuality should be illegal, the Republican Alabama Senate candidate’s campaign spokesman said Tuesday.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:38 PM UTCPublished: Dec 12, 2017 10:50 PM UTC Roy Moore “probably” still thinks homosexuality should be illegal, the Republican Alabama Senate candidate’s campaign spokesman said Tuesday. “Homosexuality is a sin in the biblical sense, that is where Roy Moore is in the state of Alabama,” Ted Crockett told CNN’s Jake Tapper. When Tapper asked if Moore believed the Christian Bible should determine United States law, Crockett responded that the country was founded on the Old and New Testaments — even though there is a separation of church and state in the country, which Tapper immediately noted. When Tapper pressed again if Moore thought homosexuality should be illegal, Crockett conceded he “probably” did. **MORE:** [Where Roy Moore Stands on Issues like Health Care and Crime](http://time.com/5047932/roy-moore-doug-jones-stance-issues/) “Its just a sin, thats what it is,” he said. “Its what my bible tells me — the Old Testament and the New Testament.” “That’s part of the problem we have in Washington, D.C., today,” Crockett continued. “We have too many people winging it out there. They’re fooling with women they shouldn’t be fooling with, they ought to love their wives. Roy Moore loves his wife.” > [](https://twitter.com/CNN/status/940707557898932230) When asked in a [2005 C-SPAN2 interview with Bill Press,](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4682986/roy-moore-2005-bill-press) Moore said that “homosexual conduct should be illegal.” Alabama voters will decide in [a special election Tuesday](http://time.com/5047566/alabama-special-election-2017-date-candidates-polls/) if Moore or his Democratic opponent Doug Jones will fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ vacant Senate seat. (Retired marine colonel Lee Busby has also launched a write-in campaign.) The last polls close at 8 p.m. ET. ## Transcript [00:00] Does he think that homosexual conduct should be [00:03] illegal? It's a yes or no question. Probably. [00:08] He probably thinks homosexual conduct should be [00:09] illegal. And what would the punishment be for a man [00:14] having sexual relations with another man or a woman [00:16] having sexual relations with another woman? What [00:18] should the punishment be? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [00:22] It's just a sin, okay? I understand- That's what it is. [00:25] that they tell you in church or what they tell you in [00:26] synagogue or what they tell you in a mosque. That's [00:29] what my bible tells me. I'm not talking about- And the [00:30] old testament and the new testament. Well, I mean- [00:33] That's what this is about. There are all sorts of- You [00:36] people want to take the whole two or three thousand [00:39] years of our history and you all just want to throw it out [00:42] the window. As if you're just gonna make your own [00:44] rules, your own man made rules, and do whatever you [00:48] want. And that's part of the problem we've got in [00:51] Washington DC today, Jake. What- We got too many [00:53] people winging it up there. They're fooling with women [00:56] they shouldn't be fooling with. They outhgt to love their [00:58] wives. Roy Moore loves his wife. Kayla loves him. It's [01:01] clear on television. You can tell that. And that's the [01:05] problem in this country, we need to get back to moral [01:08] law. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/"},"headline":"Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says","datePublished":"2017-12-12T22:50:06.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T23:38:03.000Z","description":"\"Its just a sin, thats what it is\"","url":"https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/","keywords":["politics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0502a820c1689c2/6988f46b7cdbac6881d5b32b/roy-moore.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0502a820c1689c2/6988f46b7cdbac6881d5b32b/roy-moore.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Alabama Special Election candidate Roy Moore","caption":"Alabama Special Election candidate Roy Moore","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/","name":"Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Roy Moore 'Probably' Still Thinks Homosexuality Should Be Illegal, Spokesman Says","description":"Roy Moore “probably” still thinks homosexuality should be illegal, the Republican Alabama Senate candidate’s campaign spokesman said Tuesday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/O3W6ohMI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-12-13T00:02:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/O3W6ohMI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/","duration":"PT1M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5061800/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```