Trump nominates lesbian judge tied to LGBT groups for federal bench

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 24, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-family advocates have considered Donald Trump’s judicial nominees to be one of the highest points of his presidency, but his latest pick of Judge Mary Rowland is a notable exception.

(Article by Calvin Freiburger republished from LifesiteNews.com)

Rowland, a federal magistrate judge in Illinois who spent 12 years in private practice and 10 years in the Chicago federal defender’s office, is Trump’s nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Washington Blade reports. She stands out among the rest of the president’s selections for being an open lesbian who is “married” to a woman and has two adult children.

When asked during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings about the contrast of being a judge as opposed to a lawyer, she called it a “pleasure of being in a position of being unbiased and giving parties, both sides a fair shake, listening to what they have to say, and actually being in a position of helping them resolve the case.”

Her professional associations raise doubts as to whether Rowland would separate her homosexuality from her jurisprudence, however. In praising Rowland’s qualifications, pro-abortion Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-IL, specifically highlighted her membership in the Lesbian & Gay Bar Association of Chicago and pro bono work for the Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, a left-wing group that called Justice Neil Gorsuch “dangerous” for defending Hobby Lobby’s conscience rights and has sued to attempt to force Catholic Charities to place children in lesbian foster homes.

“Mary Rowland is well-respected by the LGBTQ community in Illinois and we are pleased that someone with her experience and integrity was nominated,” LGBTQ Victory Institute CEO Annise Parker said, calling her a “bright exception” to Trump’s pattern of “judges with strong anti-LGBTQ records.”

Remarkably, the Blade reports that no senators, Republican or Democrat, asked her any questions about LGBT issues.

While Trump has overwhelmingly pleased pro-life activists, his record on LGBT issues is more mixed. Pro-family advocates have been heartened by his ban on transgender soldiers, support for religious liberty, rejection of “pride month,” and nominations of pro-family conservatives such as Mike Pompeo and Howard Nielson, Jr.

On the other hand, Trump has nominated a variety of pro-homosexual officials to various government posts and continued a number of Obama-era pro-LGBT policies, such as an executive order adding “gender identity” to federal workforce nondiscrimination criteria, and U.S. support for international recognition of homosexual relations at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

He publicly praised the pro-LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans in January, and declared after the election that the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodgesruling forcing all fifty states to recognize same-sex “marriage” was “settled law.”

Read more at: LifesiteNews.com