Today, Sharon McGowan, Director of Strategy at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to approve 23 nominees to the executive and judicial branch, including all of the nominees Lambda Legal opposed due to their records on civil rights and protections for the LGBT community:



“What we saw this morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee was quite astonishing. On one side of the room sat civil rights leaders, parents of trans kids, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus all united behind Senate Democrats in their effort to stop a slate of President Trump’s most divisive and appalling nominees to the executive and judicial branches.

"In stark contrast on the other side of the room sat a cowardly group of Senate Republicans, led by Chairman Grassley, abdicating their responsibilities and telling every face in the crowd that their voices don’t matter.

"If Senate Republicans refuse to be a check on this Administration’s most bigoted impulses, the American people will. Whether it’s Jeff Mateer, Kyle Duncan, Matthew Kacsmaryk, or Eric Dreiband, Lambda Legal is ready to fight this Administration’s plan to pack the courts and agencies with people who have made their careers opposing civil rights and equality for all, particularly LGBT people.

"We expect that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will soon bring this fight to the Senate floor, where he and every Republican Senator will have to decide whether they are going to continue to embrace Trump’s racist, homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic agenda, or whether they are going to listen the voices of the American people who know that bigotry and hate have no place in our country and our courts.