"Statistics clearly show that homosexual behavior is destructive and bears high costs, not only to the individual, but to society."

In an interview this week, Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson stated homosexuality is immoral, the latest in a long list of homophobic remarks.

Richardson, a Mormon and former state representative, answered “yes” when asked by an Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Wednesday if being gay is immoral. Federal marriage equality, he explained, doesn’t “change the definition [of marriage] with God.”

His views “[don’t] change the humanity or the acceptance I have for people to make their own choices about such important and so personal of a nature,” said Richardson, 68. “You cannot find a gay or lesbian person that I have treated without respect.”





And yet, he’s frequently invented statistics about gay relationships being toxic. In 2007, Richardson declared “pedophilia is widespread among the homosexual community.” Explaining his opposition to adoption by same-sex parents, Richardson insisted that “to allow homosexual couples to adopt would require complete disregard of the statistics on the high mortality rate from HIV/AIDS, and high rate of alcohol and drug abuse, as well as the general instability and violent nature of homosexual relationships.”

Jeanne Atkins, Richardson’s predecessor as Secretary of State, condemned his most recent remarks.

“That the highest ranking Republican official in Oregon would call these populations ’immoral’ is upsetting and harmful,” said Atkins, now head of the state Democratic party. “Most Oregonians believe that a person’s sexual orientation does not make them immoral.”

Meg Roussos, Getty Images

Oregon has a mixed record on LGBT rights: Democrat Kate Brown is the first openly bisexual governor in the nation, and signed a comprehensive trans rights bill into law just a few months after an Oregon judge granted a Portland resident’s request to become the first American registered as agender on legal documents. (This June, Oregon became the first state to offer a gender-neutral driver’s license.)

But the state isn’t free from discrimination and hate: In 2015, the owners of Sweet Cakes By Melissa bakery in Gresham were ordered to pay $135,000 after refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.

That same year, Marion County circuit court judge Vance Day faced ethics violations for refusing to marry same-sex couples.

Oregon also has one of the highest rates of hate crimes in the nation—and was ranked number one per capita, with 33 incidents in 2016 alone.