The man who Donald Trump nominated to be a federal judge in Texas once said transgender children are evidence of “Satan’s plan.”

“In Colorado, a public school has been sued because a first grader and I forget the sex, she’s a girl who thinks she’s a boy or a boy who thinks she’s a girl, it’s probably that, a boy who thinks she’s a girl… And the school said, ‘Well, she’s not using the girl’s restroom.’ And so she has now sued to have a right to go in. Now, I submit to you, a parent of three children who are now young adults, a first grader really knows what their sexual identity? I mean it just really shows you how Satan’s plan is working and the destruction that’s going on.”

Jeff Mateer, who currently serves as the First Assistant Attorney General of Texas, also said he supported gay-straight conversion therapy.

“Biblical counselors and therapists, we’ve seen cases in New Jersey and in California where folks have gotten in trouble because they gave biblical counseling and, you know, the issue is always, it’s same sex… 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 further stated that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality. He made the statements in two separate speeches in 2015, according to CNN.

“Why not one man and three women? Or three women and one man? And we’re gonna spare you some of those slides. We actually have a presentation that we get into it. And I’ll tell you, we say it’s PG-13, it may be R, or what do they call the next one? NC-17 or whatever?… There are people who marry themselves. Somebody wanted to marry a tree. People marrying their pets. It’s just like — you know, you read the New Testament and you read about all the things and you think, ‘Oh, that’s not going on in our community.’ Oh yes it is. We’re back to that time where debauchery rules.”

This is all on top of the fact that he once challenged students to find the words “separation of church and state” in the Constitution, proving he failed to understand the importance of the Establishment Clause. He further failed to note that “God” and “Jesus” are absent from the Constitution, as well.

In that speech, he said the protections of the First Amendment “were to protect us from government” and not to protect churches from political intrusion.

Mateer, who also worked for a religious liberty organization seeking to prevent laws protecting LGBTQ rights, would serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas if confirmed by the Senate.

Remember: People like Mateer are why evangelicals continue to support Donald Trump no matter what he does. They’ll let anything slide as long as he keeps filling judicial benches with conservatives who will get in the way of women’s rights and LGBTQ progress. Don’t let it happen without letting your elected officials know exactly where you stand.

(Screenshot via YouTube)

