U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania announced this week that he will vote against three of President-Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Casey said that after research and examination of Senate hearing testimony he would cast oppose the confirmation of Betsy DaVos as Secretary of Education, Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. All three have been vigorously opposed by the LGBT community.
At a press conference earlier in the day at Philadelphia Downtown Marriott, where up to 4,000 LGBTs and allies have gathered for the Creating Change Conference, several local and national LGBT leaders called on Casey and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey to reject Sessions for his anti-equality record.
In his statement, Casey blasted Sessions’ support for the gutting of the Voting Rights Act as well as his vote against a non-binding amendment stating that immigrants should not be banned from the country based on religion. He further criticized DeVos’ funding of “radical organizations that have sought to weaken protections for victims of campus sexual assault and undermine civil rights protections for LGBT students and students with disabilities.”