GLAAD CONDEMNS THE NOMINATION OF AMY CONEY BARRETT TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT, BARRETT’S ANTI-LGBTQ RECORD AND ASSOCIATIONS, AND THE RUSHED PROCESS TO CONFIRM HER WHILE VOTING IS ONGOING TO DECIDE THE NEXT PRESIDENT AND U.S. SENATE

GLAAD: “Confirming Barrett will drag America backwards. We cannot allow her to represent President Trump’s bigotry and bullying at the Supreme Court for decades to come.”

Barrett’s stated views directly threaten LGBTQ people’s rights, many afforded by the Court, including protections from discrimination and marriage equality

NEW YORK, NY – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today condemned President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett’s views against LGBTQ rights are alarming, as are her associations with influential anti-LGBTQ groups responsible for her nomination, and her lack of support for settled law affirming LGBTQ rights.

“If confirmed, Amy Coney Barrett will be a vote to undermine hard-won rights critical to all LGBTQ people, women and immigrants. Health care, reproductive rights, our legal rights to marry who we love or not be fired for who we are, are all at risk,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “Anti-LGBTQ activists supporting Barrett are wrongly claiming she is being targeted for her religion, when the focus is on her record. Barrett has voted against access to abortion, she has spoken out against LGBTQ rights, she would be the deciding vote to take away health care for millions in the middle of a deadly, out-of-control pandemic. Confirming Barrett will drag America backwards. We cannot allow her to represent President Trump’s bigotry and bullying at the Supreme Court for decades to come.”

In 2018, President Trump reportedly told confidants he was “saving” Barrett’s nomination for Justice Ginsburg’s seat. Unlike Ginsburg, Barrett has no record of achievement for women’s rights. She criticized the ruling protecting affordable health care for millions of Americans. She has repeatedly ruled to restrict access to abortion and outlined ways to further undermine it. Barrett supported dissenters to the landmark marriage equality ruling, spoke out against it, and questioned the rights of transgender people and students.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning five of six cases she represented to advance women’s rights. In her 27 years on the Court, Justice Ginsburg voted to expand LGBTQ rights in every case before her, including joining the 5-4 majorities in the landmark marriage equality cases, Windsor, Perry and finally, Obergefell, the case that opened all the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples nationwide in 2015. These rights are in jeopardy with Barrett joining the all-male dissenters on the Supreme Court.

Barrett’s anti-LGBTQ record:

• Signing onto a letter in 2015, four months after marriage equality was granted nationwide, voicing her belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, and stating her belief that “the Constitution does not expressly protect a right to privacy”

• Barrett gave a lecture paid for by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-LGBTQ hate group, and the most extreme anti-LGBTQ legal organization
• Barrett joined the Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council (FRC) in signing a letter recognizing “life from conception”
• Anti-LGBTQ activists praised Barrett upon word of her pending nomination including: FRC President Tony Perkins, President of the National Organization for Marriage Brian S. Brown, President of the Florida Family Policy Council John Stemberger, American Family Radio host Bryan Fischer, and Alabama Judge Roy Moore. 

• Barrett was vetted for the Trump campaign and Trump White House by The Federalist Society, which has argued against every major LGBTQ policy proposal including extending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include LGBTQ workers, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, hate crimes legislation, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and transgender accommodations. The Federalist Society was instrumental in the divisive nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the nominations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Chief Justice Roberts. If confirmed, Barrett would be the sixth member of The Federalist Society on the U.S. Supreme Court, increasing the risk of inflicting its anti-LGBTQ ideology on Americans

• Barrett also was vetted and considered to be a “stellar” judge, by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation, which has made false claims that marriage equality would make people less monogamous, increase abortions, and eventually lead to “group marriage.” The Heritage Foundation also consistently opposes transgender rights

• Barrett is the third Supreme Court nomination by President Trump, an unprecedented number of nominations for an impeached, thus-far one-term presidency. As a candidate, Donald Trump stated he disagreed with the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in Obergefell and said he would “strongly consider” appointing judges who would overturn the decision

Should Barrett be confirmed, marriage equality would not be the only Supreme Court precedent in jeopardy. As a candidate, Donald Trump stated he will only appoint anti-choice judges to the court, and that he wants to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make personal medical decisions, including access to abortion. President Trump’s first two nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, have already voted on the Court to uphold a restrictive law in Louisiana, joining a 5-4 dissent. Barrett has a clear anti-abortion rights judicial record. She has indicated she believes the Roe decision was “erroneous,” and has expressed a willingness to overturn existing legal precedent.

GLAAD also condemns President Trump’s nomination of Barrett and the extreme haste to confirm her in light of voting already in progress across the country to determine the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election and several key Senate races. Early voting is already underway in nine states and ballots are being mailed across the country. A majority of Americans support waiting for the outcome of the 2020 election to allow the winner to make, and the next U.S. Senate to confirm, this lifetime appointment. 

We will forcefully and loudly oppose attempts to silence the voices already speaking out with their votes about this critical nomination, made by an historically unpopular President, that will harm millions of vulnerable Americans for generations to come.