President Donald Trump selected Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, whom the president has praised.
While there are some concerns for the LGBTQ community over this pick, as Gorsuch has come down on the side of “religious liberty” before (potentially giving conservative Christians a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people), he is now causing upset among the “family values” set after a report from the Daily Mail revealed that he attends a pro-LGBTQ church.
American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer tweeted out the article with a warning reading, “Be advised: Gorsuch attends a church that is rabidly pro-gay, pro-Muslim, pro-green, and anti-Trump.”
Be advised: Gorsuch attends a church that is rabidly pro-gay, pro-Muslim, pro-green, and anti-Trump. https://t.co/7az8qnAGKk
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) February 7, 2017
The article notes that the Episcopal church in Colorado, where Gorsuch has attended since moving to Boulder a decade ago, is pro-gay marriage and operates a homeless outreach program that includes an LGBTQ center and a sexual health clinic.
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They also place solar panels on the roof of the church, citing climate change, and one of the pastors attended a Women’s March. The other pastor signed on to a letter condemning “disrespectful rhetoric” directed at Islam.
Trump recently met with other right-wing activists to whip up support for Gorsuch, such as head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, Chairman of the Evangelical Advisory Council Paula White, and David O’Steen, from National Right to Life.
Brian Brown, head of the National Organization for Marriage, who was not in that meeting, wrote in an email to supporters that his group “is in full support” of Gorsuch, noting that NOM’s chairman, John Eastman, was involved in choosing potential court picks for Trump.
LGBTQ rights advocacy groups like the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal have come out against Gorusch.
A former Gorsuch employee reports that his one-time boss was supportive of his same-sex marriage, and that he has never sensed that Gorsuch is homophobic.