Senate Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee have pushed through the nomination of a federal judge with anti-LGBTQ views, and a worrying blogging history.
John Bush has been nominated by President Trump to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday with an 11-9 vote.
Bush writes under the pen name G. Morris for his wife‘s blog, Elephants in the Bluegrass, where he has shown support for a sign promising violence against Obama supporters who might steal an opposing campaign sign, compared abortion to slavery, and backed the conspiracy theory that former president Obama was born in Kenya.
He also wrote a post critical of the State Department’s decision to change passport applications to refer to parents in a gender-neutral way, as “Mother or Parent 1” and “Father or Parent 2.”
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Bush wrote that “it’s just like the government to decide it needs to decide something like which parent is number one or number two. When that happens, both parents are subservient to the nanny state — more precisely, a nanny Secretary of State.”
Another post under Bush’s pen name shows support for Mike Huckabee’s stance against same-sex marriage.
The blog’s most recent post, written by wife Bridget Bush celebrates Bush’s successful nomination, thanking everyone “for all the prayers.”
Sen. Al Franken grilled Bush over the posts, as well as his tendency to cite from dubious sources like WorldNetDaily, an online publication that regularly traffics in conspiracy theories and bigoted content.
Franken said that Bush’s lack of judgment was “disturbing.”
Bush also used an anti-gay slur, quoting from the Hunter S. Thompson article “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” in a speech he gave to a private Louisville club, Alliance for Justice reports.
“I come here every year, and let me tell you one thing I’ve learned — this is no town to be giving people the impression you’re some kind of faggot,” Bush said, quoting Thompson.
The Human Rights Campaign called on senators last month to vote against Bush’s nomination, calling him “unfit to serve” and concluded that he posed “a serious threat to LGBTQ people and minority communities across the nation.”
Bush’s nomination now heads to the full Senate, expected to confirm him.
