Donald Trump’s judicial nominee: Gay judges shouldn’t hear LGBT cases
(Getty)
One of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees has said that gay judges shouldn’t hear LGBT cases – because they’re biased.
Howard C. Nielson Jr.’s comments came after the 2010 Hollingsworth v. Perry case which made same-sex marriage legal in California.
Nielson argued that the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Vaughn Walker, should have recused himself because he was in a same-sex relationship.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The revelations were released by the Alliance for Justice (AFJ), a group which monitors the judiciary.
They raised concerns over Nielson’s nomination in a new report.
It showed that Nielson said it was “extremely problematic that Judge Walker is a practising homosexual himself”.
Howard C. Nielson Jr (Cooper & Kirk)
Nielson, who Trump nominated to be a judge on the U.S. District Court of Utah in September, put forward a motion which targeted Walker for his sexuality.
In it, he argued that Walker “had a duty to disclose not only the facts concerning his relationship, but also his marriage intentions”, the report said.
Only if Walker “disavowed any interest in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be confident that he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome,” Nielson added.
The motion was rejected.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Nielson is vehemently opposed to LGBT rights, having argued in the past that sexual orientation is a choice.
He also opposed the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling which legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.
He said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman because “in particular, through the institution of marriage, societies seek to increase the likelihood that children will be born and raised in stable and enduring family units by both the mothers and fathers who brought them into this world,” the AFJ report said.
Children with same-sex parents have been found to have the same quality of life as other children – apart from when it comes to homophobic discrimination.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Nielson is just one of many Trump nominees who are anti-LGBT – more than one in four, to be exact.
This comes as little surprise, seeing as Trump has has quickly abandoned campaign promises to protect LGBT rights.
