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Ed Whelan

Former President, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Updated: April 21, 2023

—Referred to transgender acceptance as “insanity” and “what everyone used to recognize as lunacy. But the Obama administration now claims that federal statutes adopted decades ago embrace and compel that lunacy.”

—Referred to gender confirmation surgery as “surgical mutilation.”

—Said the Iowa Supreme Court decision saying that banning marriage equality violated the state constitution was “gobbledygook.”

—Used a famous quotation about prostitution to describe Elena Kagan’s opposition to the former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

—Promoted the idea that adoption by gay couples (or straight couples) is not “ideal” and that children raised by gay parents are comparable to children affected by their parents’ death or divorce.

—Accused Justice Vaughn Walker of “harbor(ing) a deep-seated animus against traditional marriage.”

—Supported the idea that, in relation to protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, “‘discrimination’ is ‘just another word for decision-making.’”

—Called it “absurd“ to suggest the U.S. Constitution supports marriage equality.

The GLAAD Accountability Project catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.