Gerald Allen (politician)

Gerald H. Allen (born February 8, 1950) is a Republican lawmaker in the Alabama Senate. He previously served in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Gerald Allen
Member of the Alabama Senate from the 21st district
Incumbent
Assumed office November 3, 2010
Preceded by	Phil Poole
Member of the Alabama House of Representatives from the 62nd district
In office 1994 – November 3, 2010
Succeeded by	John Merrill
Personal details
Born	(1950-02-08) February 8, 1950 (age 75) Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S.
Political party	Democratic (before 1995) Republican (1995–present)
Children	Wes Allen

Gerald Allen for Senate sign in Tuscaloosa, next to that of his competitor

Early life

Gerald H. Allen was born on February 8, 1950, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.^[1]

Career

Allen was first elected to the Alabama House in 1994. In 2005, Allen proposed Alabama House Bill 30 (HB30), which would have banned public school libraries from purchasing books by gay authors or with gay characters.^[2] The bill did not become law.

Allen defeated incumbent Phil Poole, a Democrat, in the 2010 elections to the Alabama Senate.^[3] In 2011, Allen proposed a bill to ban Sharia law. He sponsored a 2014 amendment to the Alabama Constitution banning "foreign law".^[4]

In 2017, Allen sponsored a bill for the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act to make it harder to remove Confederate monuments in Alabama.^[5]

In May 2019, he voted to make abortion a crime at any stage in a pregnancy, with no exemptions for cases of rape or incest.^[6]

Personal life

Allen is the father of incumbent Secretary of State of Alabama and former state representative Wes Allen. Both made history for being the first father and son to serve at the same time in the Alabama legislature when Wes Allen was elected to the House in 2018.^[7]