[Mb-civic] Gay Rights Groups Urge Defeat of Nominee - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Gay Rights Groups Urge Defeat of Nominee
Appeals Court Judge's Ideology Is Called 'a Mortal Danger to Equal Rights'

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A02

Leading gay rights groups yesterday dismissed as inconsequential Judge 
John G. Roberts Jr.'s pro bono work on a gay rights case in the 1990s 
and came out in strong opposition to his nomination to the Supreme Court.

"For his entire adult life, John Roberts has been a disciple of and 
promoted a political and legal ideology that is antithetical to an 
America that embraces all, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and 
transgender people," Matt Foreman, executive director of the National 
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said in a statement. "I have no doubt he's 
an accomplished lawyer and an affable dinner companion, but that doesn't 
make him any less a mortal danger to equal rights for gay people, 
reproductive freedom and affirmative action."

Some Democratic senators thought gay rights groups would hold their fire 
because Roberts provided assistance to lawyers in the 1996 Romer v. 
Evans case, a Supreme Court decision that solidified legal protections 
for gays. But the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian 
Task Force, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Parents, 
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays issued a statement saying his 
involvement was minor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501654.html
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