In Pride Month Advocate Commentary, The Leadership Conference Highlights Threat to LGBTQ Rights by Extreme Judicial Nominees

WASHINGTON – In a commentary in The Advocate, Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, reflects on the dangers that Trump’s judicial nominees pose to the LGBTQ community.

“By the end of 2017, the civil rights group Lambda Legal found that one in three of the president’s judicial nominees touted records of extreme anti-LGBTQ positions,” wrote Gupta. “In June alone, the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted — or is prepared to vote — on seven nominees with shameful anti-LGBTQ records.”

Gupta also warns that these nominees undermine the integrity and impartiality of the federal judiciary – the very branch of government charged with ensuring fairness in our system. “Every one of these appointments matters. Much of our nation’s arduous journey toward justice and equality has been fought, and won, in the federal courts. Hundreds of thousands of cases are filed in federal courts every year. And a significant number of these cases have direct and lasting impacts on the civil and human rights of people across America,” she said. “Defending the impartiality of the federal bench is an uphill battle. But not a lost one.”

The full text of the commentary can be found here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.