This evening, Trump announced Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court of the United States. Transgender Law Center (TLC), the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people, issued the following response from deputy director Isa Noyola:
“Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court is a divisive, radical conservative whose appointment would pose a devastating threat to the rights and well-being of transgender people nationwide. We need a Supreme Court that will uphold the values of freedom, fairness, and equal protection enshrined in our Constitution, not green-light discrimination against transgender people, communities of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and others under attack by this administration. The person who fills this seat will likely have a deciding vote on issues like health care, reproductive justice, and transgender people’s freedom to be our authentic selves and participate in public life, so our lives hang in the balance. Transgender Law Center demands that the Senate reject Kavanaugh and we urge our community to call their Senators to oppose the nomination.
As we brace for this critical fight, we also call on our community to remember our strength, resilience, and history of resistance. From slavery to internment to recent decisions on voting rights and the Muslim ban, the Supreme Court has a cruel legacy of injustice. 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.”