https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/11/how-is-my-daughter-a-pervert-alabama-dads-plain-spoken-rebuke-of-roy-moore-strikes-a-nerve/?utm_term=.417535f2ad69

Perhaps it was the man’s strong but plain-spoken rebuke outside a Roy Moore rally on the campaign’s final night, condemning the Republican candidate’s past comments lambasting homosexuality.

Perhaps it was the admission of the man, a peanut farmer, that he too, had harbored some of the same anti-gay feelings.

Perhaps it was his sign, a photograph of his daughter, a lesbian who, he said, had killed herself when she was 23.

The 74-year-old Mathis, a former county commissioner and state representative in Alabama, said he was speaking out against Moore because of his own experience with his daughter, Patti Sue.

He said that Moore’s comments on homosexuality amounted to calling gay people 'perverts.'

'This is something people need to stop and think about,' Mathis said. 'You’re supposed to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution said all men were created equal. But how is my daughter a pervert just because she’s gay?'

Moore, whose politics are sharply tinged by a rigid interpretation of Christianity, has a long track record of speaking harshly about gays. He has said that homosexual conduct 'should be illegal,' that it is 'an inherent evil, and an act so heinous that it defies one’s ability to describe it,' and that 'sodomy is against the laws of natuHe said that Moore’s comments on homosexuality amounted to calling gay people 'perverts.'

'This is something people need to stop and think about,' Mathis said. 'You’re supposed to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution said all men were created equal. But how is my daughter a pervert just because she’s gay?'

He said that Moore’s comments on homosexuality amounted to calling gay people 'perverts.'

'This is something people need to stop and think about,” Mathis said. 'You’re supposed to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution said all men were created equal. But how is my daughter a pervert just because she’s gay?'

'I said bad things to my daughter myself, which I regret,' he said. “But I can’t take back what happened to my daughter. Stuff like saying my daughter was a pervert, I’m sure that bothered her.'

But he said Moore’s thoughts on gay people rang false to him.

'We don’t need a person like that representing us in Washington,' he said. 'That’s why I’m here.'

Born in 1972, she was 'a wonderful child' who was 'very athletic, tomboyish (I always had to pitch batting practice to her after Dixie Youth practice), very beautiful and smart,' he wrote. But after he learned that she was gay from a friend while she was in high school, he confronted her and 'said some things to her that still eat on me to this day,' he wrote, though he later apologized.

A few years later, she killed herself. Mathis wrote that he found her; she was 23.

'She was tired of being ridiculed and made fun of,” Mathis wrote. 'She was tired of seeing how a lot of people treat gay people.'

He described another moment of regret after his daughter’s death, after sitting in a church while a preacher bashed gays.

'I was ashamed of myself for sitting there and not defending Patti,' he wrote. 'May God have mercy on us all. I only know I miss my daughter Patti very much and I am grateful for having her as my daughter.'

I enjoy seeing people break mental boundaries, but knowing he had to see his daughter die to change is quite depressing to read. 

I wonder how many people would still be homophobic after such an event. If he is capable of changing his views, then I hope more people do as well.

This is just tragic. It does go to show that some people only change when issues personally affects them though.

I was watching a news report where they asked people why they would still vote for Moore despite the sexual misconduct allegations against women and a supported responded, "As long it's not my own daughter."

I just can't understand this mentality.

Even if you think homosexuality is a sin or forbidden by God, there are certainly ways to get that across without reverting to hate. At that point you're just cherry picking the Bible.

Such a tragic story. It's even more tragic that a whole lot of people continues to spread their hateful views, unmoved by the many destroyed lives they leave behind.



This Moore guy really doesn't come off as a very pleasant person. The fact that such a vile man come this far is concerning to say the least.

How are these kinds of people still in charge of important political stuff? I don't get how some western countries and regions are still so backward.

I don't see how Roy Moore is in any position to give moral critique considering his own conduct.

Empathy often stems from one's capacity of abstract thought.  Unless they personally feel it, they have doubts as to the authenticity of a claim.  

Father of teen who killed herself ... when she was 23.

Teen

23

.

Is that seriously the only thing you got out of this? 

Well given he said he apologized while she was alive it seems that he did change his mind much earlier, but this also would have happened in a time where it was absolutely normal to still be publicly homophobic so one father's acceptance just wasn't enough.

That's the thing with entrenched views and beliefs that you've held your whole life and are shared by your community, though: they almost always go completely unchallenged until you personally have cause to reevaluate them, as the people around you only reinforce your preconceptions.

That's the sad thing I've seen many times with kids who came out in the past (still happens today, but less often), as their parents' knee-jerk reaction was often to reject it and attempt to "fix" them. Generally, the parents come around rather quickly once they've had time to digest what has happened and realize they love their kid far more than some unfounded hostility towards homosexuals that had been drilled into them from the time they were born. The end result is often that former "apathetic" homophobes become some of the most ardent supporters of that community, as they feel the need to protect their kids from the homophobes they know from personal experience are myriad in their communities.

The one time I can say I personally experienced something like this was my former apathy towards the drug-addicted, as once I'd had friends and family go through it and I saw how easy it is to fall into and how difficult it is to get out I realized my previous view was simply lazy and convenient so that I didn't have to take their plight seriously. Sometimes it requires that personal experience as it otherwise doesn't even occur to you to reconsider your views.