The LGBTQ community received an early Christmas present, as the White House has announced Trump is withdrawing two judicial nominees, including one who claimed that transgender children are a part of "Satan's plan."
From Right Wing Watch:
From Right Wing Watch:
The White House today walked back the nominations of two of President Trump’s most controversial judicial nominees, Brett Talley, a 36-year-old with a record of online extremism who had never tried a case, and Jeff Mateer, a former attorney for a Religious Right legal group who had said that transgender children were part of “Satan’s plan.” Talley, as we reported, had called for readers of his blog to join the NRA after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School and had written on Twitter that Hillary Clinton should be in jail, calling her “Hillary Rotten Clinton.” The outcry over Talley’s nomination to a district court seat in Alabama increased when the American Bar Association gave him a rare “unanimously not qualified” rating—which was no surprise, since he’s only actually practiced law for a couple of years and has never actually tried a case in court.
Mateer, a former attorney for the Religious Right legal group First Liberty Institute, was saddled with a record of public speeches and interviews in which he had said that transgender kids are part of “Satan’s plan,” warned that marriage equality would lead to “disgusting” new forms of marriage such as “people marrying their pets,” defended ex-gay conversion therapy, and questioned whether there’s a “right to homosexuality” in the 14th Amendment. On top of that, Mateer had spoken at a conference sponsored by radical anti-LGBTQ pastor Kevin Swanson, who was known for speaking about the death penalty for homosexuality.
