Christian conservative Mat Staver on
Monday claimed that efforts to allow transgender people to use the
bathroom of their choice are being financed by pedophilia advocates.
As head of Liberty Counsel, Staver
represented Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to allow her
office to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples after
the Supreme Court ruled against state marriage bans that exclude
couples based on sexual orientation. Davis' stand turned her into a
Christian celebrity.
Staver made his comments on the Faith
and Freedom radio program.
“The fact is we know sexual assaults
occur. They are going to occur with or without these laws, there's
no question about that. People commit sexual assaults, they commit
them in buildings, they commit them in restrooms. But what you have
now done, knowing that sexual assaults occur, knowing that they occur
in these places where women are trapped and they can't get out, now
what we've done, through these laws, is we've opened the door for
every rapist and pedophile,” Staver
said of laws that allow transgender people to use the bathroom they
identify with.
“Frankly, when you look at some of
the people behind the North Carolina law and some of these other
laws, who are they? They have been identified, some of them that have
been advocating this, as pedophiles. Some of this is being financed
by those who are actively promoting pedophilia,” he added,
referring to a Charlotte ordinance that the state has blocked.