WASHINGTON – Trump administration judicial nominee Jeff Mateer, a top aide to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, reportedly referred to the rights of…
WASHINGTON – Trump administration judicial nominee Jeff Mateer, a top aide to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, reportedly referred to the rights of transgender children as part of “Satan’s plan” and defended the controversial practice of “conversion therapy” for gays.
Mateer, who faces Senate confirmation for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Texas, also has argued that same-sex marriage can lead to polygamy and bestiality, views that are likely to get close scrutiny by Senate Democrats and others.
Mateer, who serves as first assistant attorney general of Texas, gave a pair of speeches in 2015 that have rekindled criticism from LGBT groups who oppose his beliefs on transgender and same-sex rights.
In a May 2015 speech unearthed by CNN, Mateer, then general counsel for a Plano-based religious advocacy group now known as the First Liberty Institute, recounted a Colorado lawsuit in which the parents of a transgender child sued her school for preventing her from using the bathroom of her choice.
“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,” Mateer said in a video. “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.”
In that same speech, Mateer criticized the Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage, saying it could lead to what he called “disgusting” new forms of matrimony, including polygamy and bestiality. “We’re back to that time where debauchery rules,” he said.
In another speech the same year, also reported by CNN, Mateer decried state bans on gay conversion therapy, a practice that has been criticized as harmful by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Pediatric Association.
“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,” Mateer said. “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.”
The speeches raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s posture on LGBT rights, which he vowed to defend as a presidential candidate, saying people should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate.”
But as president, Trump has rescinded an Obama administration directive that allowed transgender students in public schools to use the bathroom of their choice. He also recently issued a directive banning transgender military recruits.
Lambda Legal, a New York advocacy organization, called Mateer’s remarks “homophobic” and “transphobic.”
“The nomination of Jeff Mateer is the Trump administration’s latest slap in the face with respect to the LGBT community,” said Sharon McGowan, Lambda Legal’s Director of Strategy. “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.”
Paxton’s office declined comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mateer was one of five Texas judicial nominations Trump made this month to help fill 13 vacant federal judgeships in Texas – a quarter of the total role – including two seats on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Some legal analysts predict the revelations could be problematic for Mateer’s nomination. “It strikes me that this is just not acceptable to be saying that in public,” said Congress watcher Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond Law School. “It tells you about his temperament.”
Tobias said the remarks also raise questions about the vetting process for Mateer’s nomination, which has gone through a bipartisan commission in Texas as well as through the state’s two Republican U. S. senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
“Did nobody see this? Did nobody think it was relevant?” Tobias said. “Do they subscribe to these views? This is a life-tenured appointment.”
Tobias also predicted a rough outing for Mateer before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles judicial confirmation hearings. “If they try to force this through,” he said, “it’s going to be ugly. It won’t help anybody.”
Two of Trump’s nominations for Texas have ties to the conservative First Liberty Institute, formerly known as the Liberty Institute. The other is Matthew Kacsmaryk, who serves as the group’s deputy general counsel. He has been nominated to serve as a U. S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Texas.
