President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nominations of two anti-LGBT judges – one of whom said same-sex marriage would lead to people marrying trees and their pets.
Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley, who have both condemned equal marriage, were nominated for federal judgeships in Texas and Alabama respectively.
But a White House official has said the administration has withdrawn its nominations for the pair, according to Politico.
Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley recommended that the White House should “reconsider” its selection of Mateer and “not proceed” with Talley’s.
The official, who did not want to be named, said Talley, 36, who has never tried a case and has been deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, had taken himself out of the running.
“He has offered to withdraw his nomination, thus it will not be moving forward,” they said.
Talley has told The Washington Post that he opposes same-sex marriage.
The official added simply that Mateer’s nomination “will not be moving forward.”
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This was after it was revealed that Mateer, the first assistant attorney general of Texas, had said that trans children were part of “Satan’s plan.”
He has also told crowds that same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality, and expressed his opposition to same-sex adoption.
In a speech called “The Church and Homosexuality,” made in 2015 after same-sex marriage became legal across the US, Mateer said: “There are people who marry themselves.
“Somebody wanted to marry a tree. People marrying their pets.
“You read the New Testament and you read about all the things and you think, ‘Oh, that’s not going on in our community.’
“Oh, yes it is. We’re back to that time where debauchery rules.”
However, Steve Grasz was confirmed for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, despite comparing gay people to paedophiles and opposing same-sex adoption.
Grasz served on the board of a nonprofit which backed LGBT conversion therapy on minors.
He has since refused to clarify his own views on the harmful practice.
