Updated at 3 p.m. with comments from a leader of the Cornyn-Cruz judicial screening panel and other material.

WASHINGTON — Jeff Mateer, a top lawyer for the state of Texas and recent pick for a federal judgeship, described transgender children as evidence of "Satan's plan" in a 2015 speech, first reported by CNN on Wednesday.

In a pair of speeches that year, Mateer complained that states were banning conversion therapy and said same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality and other "disgusting" forms of wedlock.

Advocacy groups called Mateer — the first assistant to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — an extremist and an example of the Trump administration's antagonism toward gay, lesbian and transgender people.

Through an aide, Paxton and Mateer declined to comment on Wednesday.

"The elephant in the room is homosexuality and the agenda that this small group is seeking and imposing on the rest of us," Mateer said in a May 2015 speech titled "The Church and Homosexuality."

Jeff Mateer, first assistant to the Texas attorney general, enters the courtroom where the federal lawsuit on transgender bathroom rules would be held in Fort Worth on Aug. 12, 2016. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

He delivered the speech for the Plano-based First Liberty Institute — a conservative law firm focused on bringing forward religious liberty cases and known as Liberty Institute before 2016. He was general counsel and executive vice president at the time.

Mateer was among five picks named by President Donald Trump on Sept. 7 for vacant federal trial court posts in Texas, and one of two who had worked at First Liberty Institute. Matthew Kacsmaryk, the group's current deputy general counsel, was nominated for an Amarillo bench, in the Northern District of Texas. If confirmed by the Senate, Mateer will fill a vacancy in Sherman, in the Eastern District of Texas.

Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz recommended the nominees to the president after screening by attorneys on their Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee.

Raul Gonzalez, vice chair of the senator's committee and, like Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, called Mateer a personal friend. He was not aware of Mateer's comments before Wednesday, he said, but noted that there is no "religious test" to become a judge. He said the comments would not have derailed the panel's recommendation.

"I trust Jeff's judgment that he would make a decision not on personal views but on the facts and the law of the case before him," Gonzalez said.

But advocates for gay, lesbian and transgender rights were dismayed and outraged at Mateer's comments.

This is horrific. Someone who attacks children in this way has no place on the federal bench or in public office. https://t.co/z9CBtDtye0 — Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin) September 20, 2017

Sharon McGowan of Lambda Legal, called the nomination a "slap in the face."

"It's also another example of this administration's brazen crusade to stack our courts with extremists dedicated to dismantling rights and protections for the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in the country," she said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who tracks judicial nominations, said it was surprising that Mateer made it through the vetting process given the inflammatory comments. The White House likely relied on the senators' recommendation without digging further into Mateer's views, he added.

"That doesn't seem like the kind of comments that federal judges or a federal judge nominee should be making," Tobias said. "The question to ask is why was he nominated if he made these kinds of statements."

Cornyn and Cruz did not respond to requests for comment. Nor has David Prichard, the San Antonio lawyer who chairs their screening panel.

In one of his speeches uncovered by CNN, Mateer discussed a Colorado lawsuit in which a transgender girl's parents sued after the school district said she could no longer use the girls' bathroom because it did not match the sex on her birth certificate.

"Now, I submit to you, a parent of three children who are now young adults, a first-grader really knows what their sexual identity [is]? I mean it just really shows you how Satan's plan is working and the destruction that's going on," Mateer said in the speech.

Mateer also speculated that there is a "concentrated effort" in Texas of people trying to bring forward lawsuits against schools, business and churches for denying the rights of gay people.

"Almost like maybe they're setups," he said. "It just seems like there's more and more, unless every homosexual in the country is moving to North Texas, which maybe is a possibility. I don't know."

Mateer also complained that states were banning gay conversion therapy during a November 2015 conference hosted by controversial pastor Kevin Swanson, who is known for his condemnation of homosexuality.

In an audio file obtained by CNN, Mateer talked about cases in New Jersey and California in which biblical counselors and therapists were under scrutiny for giving "biblical counseling."

"And if you're giving conversion therapy, that's been outlawed in at least two states and then in some local areas. So they're invading that area," he said.

Before his job in Paxton's office, Mateer won several major cases in Texas as general counsel for First Liberty Institute. One case out of Kountze High School in East Texas involved an effort by school administrators to bar cheerleaders from displaying religious-themed banners at football games. The group represented the cheerleaders.

Kelly Shackelford, CEO of First Liberty Institute and a member of the judicial evaluation committee, did not return requests for comment.

Paxton expressed his support for Mateer when Trump named him to the federal bench, saying at the time that "judges who rule by the Constitution and the law are desperately needed today, and I am confident Judge Mateer will faithfully fulfill this duty."