Moments ago, the Senate majority pushed through the confirmation of President Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

This confirmation process was rushed through in opposition to all standard practices for such a critical lifetime appointment.

It was rushed through despite the fact that Americans across the country are already voting in a pivotal election that will decide the next president and leadership of the Senate.

And it was rushed through despite the fact that we are still waiting on a bill to provide real relief to our communities that are suffering from COVID-19.

This shameful political power grab casts a shadow on the credibility of both the judiciary and the Senate – two institutions that should be entrusted to uphold the civil rights of all Americans.

With Justice Barrett now replacing the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the composition of our Supreme Court has taken another step away from a core understanding that our Constitution is there to protect the rights of all.

And the Court will be deciding issues that impact every one of us – in this current term and beyond. The next high stakes LGBTQ rights case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, will be argued in just over a week. The Court will hear arguments about the Affordable Care Act soon after. We’re likely to see issues from voting rights, to reproductive freedom to the rights of immigrants and more before the Court again soon too.

But we will not go backwards.

We now have two decades of Supreme Court precedent affirming that LGBTQ people are part of “We, the people.”

GLAD will never stop fighting in the courts to defend our community’s progress and challenge any attempt to relegate LGBTQ people to second-class status.

And our collective work for justice will continue.

Now, more than ever, we each have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to take action and to make sure we keep moving closer to the equitable nation we aspire to be.

Vote. Stay engaged. Support the organizations doing the work that matters to you.

And remember – we’ve faced difficult fights before, and won.

We win because we are right, and because when we work together we are unstoppable.

Together we will keep fighting, and we will keep advancing the cause of equal justice under law for all.