By John Riley on September 25, 2020 @JRileyMW

President Donald Trump has selected anti-LGBTQ Judge Amy Coney Barrett, of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, to succeed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last week at age 87.
Trump is expected to officially announce Barrett’s nomination on Saturday, according to The New York Times. He met with her earlier this week, and has reportedly been told by advisors and conservative legal experts that Barrett would be “a female Antonin Scalia,” referring to the former Supreme Court justice, for whom Barrett clerked from 1998 to 1999.
Barrett, a 48-year-old doctrinaire Catholic and former Notre Dame law professor who is beloved by social conservatives, was considered one of the favorites to replace the liberal Ginsburg, primarily because of her personal opposition to abortion, which they believe will influence her decision-making, regardless of the facts of any particular case. If confirmed, she would become the youngest justice on the nation’s highest court.
Barrett has previously called Roe v. Wade an “erroneous decision” and a “dramatic shift,” arguing in 2013 that the crucial abortion rights case shifted the debate over reproductive rights to the national level, to be decided by judges, and suggesting the issue could be better addressed at the state level by elected lawmakers who write and pass laws expanding or restricting access to abortion.
Barrett has also previously predicted that the Supreme Court will give more flexibility to individual states to limit abortions. As a judge on the 7th Circuit, she argued in favor of having all sitting judges on the circuit rehear an abortion-related case.
In that case, Planned Parenthood of Indiana, three of Barrett’s colleagues struck down a law regulating the disposal of fetal remains after an abortion or miscarriage, on the grounds that the law was unconstitutional because fetal remains are not the remains of “persons.”
Barrett, who is considered an “originalist” who interprets laws based on the plain meaning of their text, has amassed a record that is hostile not only to reproductive rights but LGBTQ rights.
She has criticized the Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, arguing that the courts should not be deciding whether LGBTQ people can legally marry. Rather, she believes that those who want same-sex marriage should focus on lobbying state lawmakers to pass laws allowing the practice, as Chief Justice John Roberts argued in his dissent.
In a 2016 lecture to students at the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute, Barrett contended that Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, does not extend to transgender Americans who are discriminated against because of their failure to conform to gender stereotypes.
Several lawsuits involving transgender students’ ability to access facilities like restrooms or locker rooms have invoked the law to argue that barring them from certain spaces due to their gender identity is inherently a form of sex discrimination.
That interpretation has most recently been embraced by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in hearing the case of Gavin Grimm, a trans alumnus of Gloucester High School who was barred from the boys’ restroom after community members complained that his presence would make cisgender students uncomfortable.
Related: Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, other anti-LGBTQ figures top Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees
“When Title IX was enacted, it’s pretty clear that no one, including the Congress that enacted that statute, would have dreamed of that result, at that time,” Barrett said in her speech. “Maybe things have changed so that we should change Title IX, maybe those arguing in favor of this kind of transgender bathroom access are right. That’s a public policy debate to have. But it does seem to strain the text of the statute to say that Title IX demands it.”
She also repeatedly misgendered transgender individuals, referring to them according to their assigned sex at birth and calling trans women “physiological males,” and even alluding to the well-worn right-wing trope casting transgender people as predators, and alleging their presence in female restrooms poses a threat to young girls or women.
Those beliefs could prove to be consequential, as the court is scheduled to hear the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, in which Catholic Social Services is insisting it should have the right to receive taxpayer money from Philadelphians, even though it actively discriminates against prospective parents based on sexual orientation, marital status, and other characteristics.
When she was first nominated for the 7th Circuit, she was criticized for receiving payment for speeches she gave to the Blackstone Legal Fellowship program of the right-wing legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom.
She was vigorously questioned by then-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) over ADF’s designation as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, saying she was not aware of all of ADF’s policy positions and was simply giving a lecture on constitutional law.
See also: Supreme Court says religious schools can fire LGBTQ employees despite nondiscrimination laws
SPLC claims that ADF should be considered a “hate group” due to its misrepresentations of the LGBTQ community, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and push for laws, both in the United States and abroad, that criminalize consensual same-sex activity, sterilize transgender individuals, and carve out “religious liberty” exemptions allowing people to deny goods and services to LGBTQ people.
Yet under questioning by Franken, Barrett said she did not believe ADF was a hate group, saying she “never witnessed any discriminatory conduct” on the part anyone affiliated with the organization, and that ADF’s role as co-counsel in a major case before the Supreme Court gave them an air of legitimacy.
Barrett has raised red flags among some civil rights advocates, including the Alliance for Justice, for refusing to rehear a case in which the 7th Circuit ruled against a Black employee of Autozone who claimed that he had faced racial segregation when he was transferred to another branch with other Black employees while white employees were consigned to another store.
She has alarmed workers’ rights advocates for a decision in which she overturned 30 years’ worth of precedent, effectively blocking the Federal Trade Commission’s ability to punish companies that lie to consumers by recouping money from them.
In another case, she penned a decision denying consumers the ability to enforce their rights under federal law against abusive debt collection practices.
Barrett has also criticized the Affordable Care Act and suggested that she would strike down the law. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an argument just days after the November election that could potentially overturn the law, leading to potentially serious consequences.
If overturned, people who have obtained insurance either through the Obamacare exchanges or through expanded Medicaid could lose coverage, and people with pre-existing conditions could be denied coverage or forced to pay higher premiums due to the elimination of provisions preventing insurance companies from discriminating against them.
Read more:
Republican senators introduce bill to bar transgender females into women’s sports
Biden to HRC: “You deserve a partner in the White House.”
HRC Foundation launches PSA campaign to combat anti-trans stigma and violence






By John Riley on December 18, 2025 @JRileyMW
The U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to advance a bill that would imprison doctors for providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors and punish parents who consent to their child’s treatment.
The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), would impose prison sentences of up to 10 years on medical providers who recommend or prescribe puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery to transgender patients under 18. It would also criminalize parents who consent to their child’s treatment or transport them across state lines to obtain such care.
By John Riley on December 14, 2025 @JRileyMW
A man who tore down a Pride flag hanging outside a candy shop in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was reported to police by two 10-year-olds who witnessed the vandalism.
Surveillance video shows the suspect approaching Evolution Candy on East State Street -- either with a limp or dragging one leg -- before interacting with the Pride flag. He appears to say something unintelligible during the incident, according to footage aired by WPVI-TV.
James Lamb, the owner of Evolution Candy, said the incident occurred shortly after he stepped away from the store on December 6.
By Will O'Bryan on December 22, 2025
The year's nearly out. Sometimes that calls for taking sweet stock of the past months' wonderful events. Coming to the end of 2025, on the other hand, is more like getting to that denouement in the action movie where the survivors take a breath and pat each other on the back for having made it out alive. At this stage, we are Newt getting tucked-in to her Sulaco hibernation tube.
With some effort and a pinch of luck, may we all fare better in 2026 than poor Newt's end at the start of Alien 3.
Why such a shitty year? So much of it, obviously, can be laid at the feet of Lame Duck Donald. Not that he hasn't had loads of assistance in his evil efforts to erase our transgender family and friends, colleagues, and leaders during 2025. The purge, as promised, began right out of the gate on Inauguration Day.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
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