By: Chris Johnson – gaysonoma.com – July 26, 2018

With August fast approaching, U.S. Senators would customarily leave Washington for their annual break, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding them in session for votes on President Trump’s judicial nominees — many of whom would likely threaten LGBT rights if confirmed.

The Washington Blade has highlighted five nominees that could come up for a vote and that the LGBT legal group Lambda Legal and other progressive groups have identified as hostile to LGBT rights.

Each of these nominees could receive a vote at the same time the Senate considers the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump has named for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court and whom LGBT groups oppose because he came from a list of potential picks created by the anti-LGBT Heritage Foundation.

Trump named many of these picks as long as a year ago, but they have languished in the Senate as a result of opposition from civil rights groups over their records and views against LGBT rights.

Here’s background on the five nominees and their anti-LGBT records:

Mark Norris, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Tennessee

Nominated by Trump in July 2017, Norris has served for 17 years as a member of the Tennessee Senate, where he has supported anti-LGBT legislation and shepherded it through as Senate majority leader.

Among the anti-LGBT bills Norris supported and are now law are measures prohibiting Tennessee municipalities from enacting pro-LGBT ordinances and enabling mental health counselors to refuse to treat LGBT patients out of religious objections.

Norris as majority leader also last year moved through legislation now pending before the House that would bar the government from taking “discriminatory action” against a business based on its internal policies. The measure would bar cities from refusing to contract with companies that have no policies against anti-LGBT discrimination.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide, Norris challenged the legitimacy of the decision.

In September 2016, Norris was among 53 Republican legislators who filed a motion to intervene in a custody dispute case between two lesbian parents. The lawmakers argued the lesbian parent who wasn’t the birth mother didn’t have rights to her child because the Obergefell decision didn’t apply to family law.

In the final year of the Obama administration, Norris was a critic of guidance requiring schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity, pledging in a statement to “make sure that nothing will be done to give this ‘guidance’ any effect.” Trump has since repealed the guidance.

But Norris’ record isn’t just marked by anti-LGBT views. The lawmaker has pushed forward other initiatives criticized by civil rights groups. Among those measures are anti-Muslim legislation, English-only driver’s education, measures restricting abortion rights, legislation enhancing criminal penalties on undocumented immigrants and a voter ID law seen to block minorities from accessing the polls.

Howard Nielson, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah

Howard Nielson made defense of California’s Proposition 8 in court — and the argument that U.S. Chief Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling against the measure should be invalidated because the judge didn’t disclose he’s gay — a distinctive part of his legal career.

Nominated by Trump in September 2017, Nielson is a partner at the D.C.-based Cooper & Kirk, PLLC and represented the defendants in Hollingsworth v. Perry, who sought to uphold the measure banning same-sex marriage in California they placed on the ballot in 2008. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately rejected their claims on the basis they didn’t have standing in court, restoring marriage equality to California.

David Porter, nominated for a seat on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals

Thomas Alvin Farr, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

Matthew Kacsmaryk, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas

To see the information on the remaining judges, click read more.

Source: McConnell Wants to Confirm These Anti-LGBT Judges