As chaos reigns in Minneapolis and in other ICE-infested cities across the country, the Trump administration has also not stopped grinding its repressive gears in its quest to dismantle pretty much every federal LGBTQ+ protection. Anti-LGBTQ+ hate group staffer Darin Smith is on track to become another cog in that machine.  

Smith has never tried a case, yet is on track to become the next U.S. Attorney for Wyoming, a role the Department of Justice describes as the state’s “principal litigator.” Despite his dearth of experience, it’s no surprise that Donald Trump nominated Smith, who is already serving as interim U.S. attorney in the state. He does, after all, possess a few qualifications that make him a perfect fit for America’s current commander-in-chief: He’s a diehard MAGA loyalist, he believes the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen (and even rallied outside the Capitol on January 6), and he vehemently opposes LGBTQ+ people’s rights.

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Until recently, Smith served as Director of Planned Giving and Foundations for the Family Research Council (FRC), an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group that declares on its website, “the only appropriate context for sexual relations is within the marriage of a man and a woman” and that “God created us ‘male and female.’”

In his Senate Questions for the Record, Smith confirmed to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that he agrees with FRC’s opposition to same-sex marriage, as well as its stance that homosexuality is “harmful.” His answer affirming support for the organization’s positions on LGBTQ+ individuals implies he agrees with FRC’s positions that “sexual orientation can change” with conversion therapy, that LGBTQ+ identities “should never be specially protected categories under the law,” and that the Equality Act is “actually unequal, unfair, and unjust.”

A Trojan Horse

Smith’s nomination – which Wyoming’s Republican senators have enthusiastically supported – has remained largely under the radar, but his likely confirmation is significant, a sign that loyalty to Trump is still the most important qualification.

It “certainly strikes me as something that the administration could try to use as precedential,” former federal prosecutor Michael Romano told Bloomberg.

Smith’s “background gives assurance only that he is politically aligned with, and will be loyal to, President Trump,” added Bruce Green, director of Fordham School of Law’s Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics and a former federal prosecutor. “From the president’s perspective, that seems to be the only necessary qualification, and that’s good enough for Republicans in the Senate who will vote to confirm him.”