Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people, issued the following statement concerning the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh:
“In the wake of clear and harrowing evidence that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted multiple women, the Senate’s decision to force through a vote on his nomination to the Supreme Court – over the protests of the American Bar Association among others – calls into question the integrity of the institution itself. Senate Republicans are not even considering the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, but simply ignoring it after cruelly compelling her to relive the trauma of her sexual assault on a national stage. Any Supreme Court decision delivered by Kavanaugh, an accused serial rapist who has pledged under oath his desire to exact revenge on his political foes, would be illegitimate.
For Transgender Law Center, an organization founded on legal advocacy and working within the U.S. legal system to demand dignity for transgender people, it is difficult but necessary to say that Kavanaugh’s rushed confirmation would destroy any credibility of the Supreme Court.
An overwhelming number of transgender and gender nonconforming people are survivors of sexual assault. The past week has been devastating for many of us, forced to watch the dismissal of survivors by some of the most powerful people in the country, and we shudder to think of the continued and intensified violence that would follow Kavanaugh’s confirmation to our highest court.
We need a Supreme Court that will uphold the values of freedom, fairness, and equal protection enshrined in our Constitution, not actively perpetrate violence and discrimination against transgender people, Black people and communities of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and so many others. Transgender Law Center demands that the Senate reject Kavanaugh and we urge our community to call their Senators to oppose the nomination.
We also call on our community to again remember our strength, resilience, and history of resistance. TLC has long believed that we must resist not only through courts and legislatures, but through rallying together, organizing, and protecting each other as we have always done.”
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Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.