Nominee Who Literally Demonized Trans Kids Is the Tip of the Iceberg
by Ray Duval and Harper Jean Tobin
Even in a class of dozens of conservative nominees, Trump judicial nominee Jeff Mateer has shocked observers with his record of callous and downright mean-spirited comments about LGBT people. Worst of a string of terrible comments is his description, in a 2015 speech, of transgender children as evidence of “how Satan’s plan is working.”
Yesterday, Mateer received an emotional letter from 278 parents of transgender children, urging him to “apologize sincerely and without reservation to us and our families and all the others like us, and to clearly articulate how wrong and damaging your words are to children like ours — or to withdraw your nomination.”
Even Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who helped put forward Mateer’s nomination, has started to waver, saying, “I’ve got some work to do until I can make that final conclusion.” Shortly after CNN reported on Mateer’s 2015 speech last week, footage of the speech was taken down from Vimeo. Since then, numerous outlets have panned Mateer and his reprehensible views.
Mateer’s shocking words might just sink his nomination. But it’s just as appalling that he is not the only nominee for a lifetime judgeship who has gone out of his way to demean transgender Americans. In fact, Trump nominees were at the forefront of attacks against transgender people, including legal battles against Virginia student Gavin Grimm and defending North Carolina’s hateful HB 2.
Here are just some of Jeff Mateer’s fellow nominees:
Kyle Duncan
Just this week, President Trump nominated to a federal appeals court Kyle Duncan, an architect of the legal opposition to transgender equality. Duncan is the counsel of record in the G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board case, where he has been arguing diligently over the last two years that federal law offers no protection for transgender students like Gavin Grimm.
During this same time period, Duncan also represented the sponsors of North Carolina’s notorious anti-transgender law HB 2 when it was challenged in court. Duncan formerly headed the legal team at the Becket Fund, which recently created a lie-filled anti-transgender website as part of its efforts to promote discrimination in health care.
Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz, who has been nominated to sit on the Federal Court of Claims, is a member of Duncan’s legal team, meaning he also represented both the sponsors of HB 2 and Gavin Grimm’s school district. In both cases, Schwartz helped craft arguments that federal laws offer no protection to trans people.
While a lawyer’s choice of client is not, in itself, generally considered a valid ground for criticizing nominees, Schwartz’s involvement in making far-reaching legal arguments in these high-profile cases should prompt close scrutiny of his own views and possible biases. Schwartz refused to answer senators’ questions about Gavin Grimm’s case because he is still representing the Gloucester County School Board. Regardless, he was voted out of committee 11–9 along party lines, and awaits a confirmation vote before the full Senate.
Matthew Kacsmaryk
Matthew Kacsmaryk is President Trump’s other nominee for a judgeship in the same Texas district court as Mateer.
Also like Mateer, Kacsmaryk is a former staff member at the First Liberty Institute, a blatantly anti-LGBTQ organization based in Plano, Texas But the similarities between Mateer and Kacsmaryk don’t stop there: Kacsmaryk also appears to be preoccupied with transgender kids. Last year, he co-authored two different friend-of-the-court briefs to the Supreme Court in opposition of trans student Gavin Grimm’s right to be treated equally at school. Kacsmaryk’s briefs argued, in essence, that recognizing any civil rights protections for transgender people would violate the constitutional rights of those who would seek to marginalize trans people in society.
Kacsmaryk also helped to spearhead the effort to undo the Fort Worth Independent School District’s policies supporting transgender kids. Finally, he has argued in opinion pieces that the very idea that a person can be transgender is “false” and threatening.
Steven Grasz
President Trump’s nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Steve Grasz, has sat on the board of a non-profit organization called the Nebraska Family Alliance, which — like Mateer — advocates for the dangerous quack practice of conversion therapy. As recently as July of this year, Nebraska Family Alliance policy director Nate Grasz (who happens to be Steven Grasz’s son) wrote a piece decrying the fact that this discredited and harmful practice has been banned in nine states. That the elder Grasz has declined to disavow this disturbing position — at odds with the medical and pediatric communities — suggests his views align with his organization’s.
What do all four of these nominees have in common?
All of these judicial nominees have largely built their careers around using the law to marginalize the LGBTQ population and to prevent transgender people from fully participating in public life and enjoying protection from discrimination. They have gone out of their way to target LGBTQ youth throughout their careers, and they have given no indication that they would serve as fair and impartial judges when the rights and interests of the LGBTQ community are at stake.
In addition to these judicial nominees, Trump’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has a long record of anti-civil rights work that also includes defending HB2. While lawyers usually can’t be blamed for defending their clients, as a firm partner Eric Dreiband went out of his way to get involved in defending HB 2, representing the University of North Carolina when it was sued by civil rights groups and by the very DOJ Civil Rights Division he has been named to lead. Dreiband will get a committee vote next Thursday.
With all of these choices, the Trump/Pence Discrimination Administration has once again reaffirmed its dedication to rolling back civil rights for transgender people.
These nominees are dangerous for us all.
Ray Duval is a policy assistant at the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Harper Jean Tobin is Director of Policy at the National Center for Transgender Equality.
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