An anti-trans judicial nominee was forced to answer for his past statements on gender, sex, marriage, and disability in a contentious exchange during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

The president recently nominated Indiana attorney Justin Olson to serve as a federal judge in the Indiana Southern District Court. Olson is an ordained but inactive elder in the Presbyterian church and also works with the so-called Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) to sue universities and the NCAA for their trans-inclusive sports policies.

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During the hearing, Olson resisted as Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pressed him to share some of his personal beliefs.

Kennedy asked Olson about a 2022 sermon in which he said, “Transgenderism, homosexuality, fornication, and all sorts of sexual perversions are a form of hypocrisy” that are caused by “shame from the inside.”

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After asking Olson to confirm if he did say those words, Olson was visibly anxious as he stumbled over his response.

“That, um, I don’t recall the precise wording, but that sounds, um familiar,” Olson said.

He then claimed his words were “for the edification of the people that I was preaching to. As a judge sitting here today, my obligation is to apply the rule of law.”

Kennedy shot back, “My obligation is to try to understand you, ’cause this is a lifetime appointment. Do you believe that fornication… is a form of sexual perversion?”

Olson explained that by fornication, he meant any sex act outside of marriage, but continued to resist sharing his personal beliefs and instead emphasized he was merely preaching the doctrine of his church.

He also asked about a 2015 speech in which Olson discussed a passage in the Bible that says wives should be subservient to their husbands. Kennedy asked if Olson believed that. “I believe every word of the Bible,” he said.

Earlier, Kennedy also asked him to explain a sermon in which he spoke about marriage not being intended for people with disabilities.

Again stumbling over his words, he claimed he was explaining why certain people are “called to singleness” and not why people shouldn’t get married if they want to. “I was using that example as an illustration of why some don’t get married, not as a kind of reason why someone shouldn’t,” he said.

In a social media post announcing Olson’s nomination, the president touted Olson’s fight against trans athletes, saying that, “as a litigator, [Olson] has been fighting tirelessly to keep men out of women’s sports.”

Olson is a lead lawyer in an anti-trans lawsuit financed by ICONS representing three former University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) women swimmers who sued UPenn, Harvard University, the Ivy League (an athletic conference of eight private universities, including UPenn and Harvard), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The lawsuit alleges that the universities and NCAA violated Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based educational discrimination, by allowing trans swimmer Lia Thomas to compete on UPenn’s women’s swim team during 2021 and 2022, Daily Journal reported, something which left the plaintiffs “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.” The suit seeks a total ban on trans female athletes — citing opportunities “lost” and “taken” from trans women who allegedly “displaced” cis women “unfairly.”

Olson is also an attorney in ICONS’ lawsuit against San Jose State University (SJSU) and the Mountain West Conference for allowing a trans volleyball player to participate in collegiate matches. The player — who participated for three seasons without any issues over her participation — didn’t cause any unfair advantage or injuries, but the lawsuit claims her presence still stifled other female athletes’ “free speech.”

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