The Trump administration’s judicial nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin has a particularly troubling history with racist and homophobic remarks, a new report from Lambda Legal reveals.
Speaking out against nominee Gordon Giampietro, Lambda points to several interviews in which Giampietro criticized marriage equality. During The Lydia LoCoco Show, he called the Supreme Court gay marriage ruling Obergefell v. Hodges “an assault on the conscience rights of all Americans.” In another instance, he compared gay marriage to incest.
“This new definition of marriage actually focuses marriage on the sex act,” Giampietro told Nazareth Project. “Because if it were simply that we wanted to honor the love of two people, we would allow sons to marry their mothers, brothers to marry their sisters to get them healthcare. Isn’t that a beautiful thing, doesn’t society think that would be a great thing?”
Giampietro’s views on racial equality are equally upsetting. In a comment on the website the Catholic Thing in 2014, Giampietro argued that Americans can trace “the intrusion into private business” by the federal government all the way to “the Civil Rights Act.” Instead, he fears white Americans “sowed the seeds of our own loss of freedom” through slavery.
“Absent slavery, there is no racial spoils system, no calls for diversity—which is code for relaxed standards (moral and intellectual)—and no eye-rolling when appeals are made to ‘states rights,'” he wrote.
Lambda Legal and 39 other LGBTQ advocacy organizations have since written a letter to the U.S. Senate, urging senators to deny his nomination to the U.S. District Court.
“More than just a lack of knowledge and temperament, Mr. Giampietro’s comments reveal a level of ideological fervor that is incompatible with judicial service,” the organizations wrote. “We urge you to demand that Mr. Giampietro’s nomination be withdrawn.”