Following the news that President Donald Trump has nominated two new judicial appointees to the bench, 27 LGBTQ advocacy organizations have signed an open letter urging the Senate not to confirm his nominees, John K. Bush and Damien Schiff.
Both men, the letter says, have historically been vocal opponents to LGBTQ rights.
Bush, a lawyer from Kentucky who is being considered for a seat at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, once opposed the state Supreme Court's decision to remove consensual sodomy from its list of prosecutable offenses.
Meanwhile, Schiff, an attorney from California, has spoken out against a Texas ruling to strike down sodomy laws, and has criticized Title IX, the law that ensures LGBTQ students have the same rights as their other peers.
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"After reviewing the records of Mr. Bush and Mr. Schiff, we have concluded that their views on civil rights issues are fundamentally at odds with the notion that LGBT people are entitled to equality, liberty, justice and dignity under the law," the letter reads.
The letter, spearheaded by Lambda Legal, a legal non-profit dedicated to LGBTQ civil rights, was also signed by organizations such as the Transgender Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration appointed Bethany Kozma — an anti-transgender activist — to the Office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in the US Agency for International Development, another move that drew concern amongst advocates for the transgender community.
"The records of Mr. Bush and Mr. Schiff demonstrate that their appointment to the bench would cause grave harm to the LGBT community, as well as many other communities who rely on the federal judiciary to administer fair and impartial justice," the letter continued.
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