Sharon McGowan, Director of Strategy at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement after Mitch McConnell filed cloture on Kyle Duncan, nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:
Lambda Legal is but one voice in a chorus of opposition urging Senators to stop the nomination of Kyle Duncan, whose record must be viewed through the lens of the serious damage that he has wreaked on the lives of LGBT people, including transgender children, in service of his ideological agenda.
If he is confirmed, there is no question that he will use this position of public trust to render our community second-class citizens, including the more than 700,000 LGBT people living in southern Fifth Circuit states like Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.
The public is fed up with the White House’s stream of judicial nominees whose records reflect disrespect and disdain for LGBT people, women, and racial minorities.
After the public outcry over the nomination of Jeff Mateer, who denounced transgender kids as evidence that “Satan’s plan is working,” Senate Republicans should take heed: nominees like Kyle Duncan, who has argued that transgender kids are “delusional,” are unfit to serve as a federal judge.
The American people are counting on enough men and women of principle in the Senate to put their country ahead of their party and stop Mr. Duncan’s nomination before it is too late.
* Cloture vote scheduled for 5:30pm on Monday, April 23.
**Op-Ed by Oren Adar: https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2018/4/19/antigay-lawyer-targeted-our-family-and-now-others-are-risk
**Op-Ed by Lavern Thompson: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/opinion/kyle-duncan-john-thompson.html
**Op-Ed by Nicole Maines: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/03/22/commentary-demeaning-damaging-views-disqualify-nominee-for-federal-appeals-court/
