Gorsuch on SCOTUS bench is in line with Trump Administration's goal to erase LGBTQ people from the USA
Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, the world’s LGBTQ media advocacy organization, released the following statement after the United States Senate used the “nuclear option” – a move bypassing traditional U.S. Senate procedures – to confirm Neil Gorsuch to be the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
“Republicans in the Senate just destroyed a steadfast American tradition for the purpose of confirming a person to the U.S. Supreme Court who will most certainly vote in opposition to the safety and well-being of the LGBTQ community, and many marginalized groups for his entire career on the bench. With his history of siding against transgender Americans and arguing against marriage equality, Neil Gorsuch is yet another reprehensible pawn in the Trump Administration’s goal of erasing the LGBTQ community from the fabric of America.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: What a Justice Neil Gorsuch Would Mean for LGBTQ Americans
- Has argued that certain minority civil rights issues, like marriage equality, should be settled through elections or legislatures, not the courts.
- Ruled numerous times against the transgender community, including against a transgender woman who filed an employment discrimination lawsuit.
- In lower court decisions in the famous Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor cases, Gorsuch signaled willingness to allow religious employers to use their personal beliefs to sidestep federal law.
- SCOTUSBlog describes him as “an ardent defender of religious liberties and pluralistic accommodations for religious adherents” and “a natural successor to Scalia in adopting a pro-religion conception of the establishment clause.”
- As Columbia student in mid ’80s, defended keeping military recruiters on campus despite the military’s discriminatory stance on LGBTQ soldiers.
- Once described LGBT rights as merely part of liberals’ social agenda. “American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom, relying on judges and lawyers rather than elected leaders and the ballot box, as the primary means of effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide…”
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www.glaad.org/blog/gorsuch-scotus-bench-line-trump-administrations-goal-erase-lgbtq-people-usa
