The White House on Wednesday announced that it was pulling two judicial nominees, include one who once called transgender kids part of “Satan's plan” of “destruction.”

The announcement came after Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed concern over the nominations of Brett Tally and Jeff Mateer. Talley had never tried a case. The Dallas Morning News confirmed that both nominations “will not be moving forward.”

In May, 2015, Mateer, the current first assistant attorney general of Texas, delivered a speech titled “The Church and Homosexuality,” in which he discussed a Colorado lawsuit that sought to allow a transgender girl to use the bathroom of her choice at school. At the time, Mateer was serving as general counsel of the First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative group opposed to LGBT rights.

"In Colorado, a public school has been sued because a first grader and I forget the sex, she's a girl who thinks she's a boy or a boy who thinks she's a girl, it's probably that, a boy who thinks she's a girl," Mateer said. “And the school said, 'Well, she's not using the girl's restroom.' And so she has now sued to have a right to go in. Now, I submit to you, a parent of three children who are now young adults, a first grader really knows what their sexual identity? I mean it just really shows you how Satan's plan is working and the destruction that's going on."

In that same speech, Mateer said that allowing gay couples to marry would lead to “disgusting” new forms of matrimony, such as “people marrying their pets.”

Later that same year, Mateer spoke at a conference hosted by pastor Kevin Swanson, an outspoken opponent of LGBT rights, where he defended therapies that attempt to alter the sexuality or gender identity of LGBT people.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, cheered the move.

“Jeff Mateer’s extreme rhetoric and hateful comments are disqualifying for any public official and should have prevented Donald Trump from nominating him to begin with,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “We thank the Senators who expressed concern about this dangerous nominee and the many supporters who joined us to #StopJeffMateer. We will continue to fight back against the Trump-Pence administration’s attempt to appoint extremists across our judicial system and roll back our progress towards equality.”