Williams Institute

UCLA Law Honors Williams Institute Founder Chuck Williams

admin — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:07:35 +0000

Chuck Williams, philanthropist and founder of the Williams Institute at UCLA Law, shares his vision and reflects on the impact of Williams Institute research on public policy and the nation.

Though Acceptance for Gay Americans Is Growing, Discrimination Persists

Adelin Lo — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:08:48 +0000

PBS
By Staff Writers
June 13, 2013

A new survey by the Pew Research Center offers a complex view of what it’s like to be an LGBT American. The survey found that while 92 percent of LGBT Americans say society is more accepting, 53 percent say they still face discrimination. Ray Suarez talks with Paul Taylor, co-author of the survey, and Gary Gates of UCLA.

Transcript:

Jeffrey Brown: And now a two-part look at issues affecting gays and lesbians, ahead of much-anticipated Supreme Court decisions coming soon on major cases involving same-sex marriage.

Ray Suarez begins our coverage.

Ray Suarez: A new survey provides one of the largest and most complex portraits of what life is like today for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans. The sweeping survey conducted by the Pew Research Center spanned topics including political views, social stigmas and the difficulties of coming out.

It finds growing acceptance in the U.S. of the LGBT community; 92 percent of those surveyed said they agreed with that. Yet 53 percent of gay Americans say there is still discrimination. The survey was done just weeks before the Supreme Court decision and was released during Pride Month.

A short time ago, President Obama spoke at a Pride Month event at the White House about those changing attitudes.

President Barack Obama: From Minnesota to Maryland, from the United States Senate to the NBA, it’s clear we’re reaching a turning point.

We have — we have become not just more accepting. We have become more loving as a country and as a people. Heart and minds change with time. Laws do, too.

Change like that isn’t something that starts here in Washington, but it’s something that has the power that Washington has a great deal of difficulty resisting over time.

Ray Suarez: For more on all this, we turn to Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center and co-author of the LGBT survey, and Gary Gates, distinguished scholar at the Williams center at UCLA and co-author of the “Gay and Lesbian Atlas.”

And, Paul Taylor, this is a survey involving a community that’s often the object of research, but rarely the subject of research. Did the LGBT Americans that you spoke to agree with what we just heard the president saying about change being under way?

Paul Taylor, Executive Vice President, Pew Research Center: Yes.

We had, as you said, 90 percent, 93 percent saying society is more accepting now than it was 10 years ago. And then we said about, what 10 years from now? And another 92 percent, 93 percent said it will be more accepting. We take a lot of surveys. We rarely see numbers in the 90s.

You ask people, does your mother love you? Maybe you will get in the 90s. So, this is a nearly universally held belief. It’s an understanding that there has been an extraordinary amount of change in societal attitudes. So that is the good news story.

I said earlier today the LGBT population is living in the best of times, but they are not easy times, and there is another side to the story. And we asked a lot of questions about the experiences they have had, the perceptions of discrimination and stigma, and they’re pretty powerful. And you had a couple of examples of that.

One of the ones that struck me is, even in these more accepting times, in our survey population — we talked to about 1,200 people in this community — only slightly over half said they had told their mother of their sexual orientation, and only about four in 10 said they had told their farther. So that is an illustration of a community that is sort of, at one of the deepest parts of themselves, they’re not yet able or willing or feel comfortable sharing that with the people they’re closest to.

Ray Suarez: That idea that “things are better, but” comes through in data point after data point. You ask if people have been subject to slurs or jokes. A simple majority said, yes, at some time, they had been subject to slurs or jokes.

And then you asked, has any of this happened in the past year? And it was about one out of six of LGBT people. Have they been threatened or physically attacked? A much smaller number, so that the kind of resentments that we’re talking about in society rarely take a physical form, but even among that number, 26 percent at some time in their lives, only four percent in the last year or so.

Gary Gates, what does that tell you about the state of LGBT America?

Gary Gates, The Williams Institute, UCLA: Well, I think, as Paul said, I think it says that LGBT Americans are very clear that things have gotten much better.

But they’re not there yet. I think many of them, as Paul mentioned, haven’t come out to their parents. Still, many experience a variety of discrimination, a variety of types of discrimination, including in their churches, in their families, with their friends.

And I think that’s the life — one of the huge contributions of this survey is focusing on that kind of day-to-day existence of LGBT Americans in this time of rapid change.

Ray Suarez: Gary, one finding that I found very interesting was the self-reporting among this population that they were much more sympathetic to other people in society who they thought also faced various kinds of discrimination.

Gary Gates: Right.

Ray Suarez: Does that explain why gay Americans are so prominent as activists in other people’s fights?

Gary Gates: Well, I think so.

I mean, I think there’s no question that the experience of being stigmatized allows people to understand what that’s like, and then to empathize or relate to other people who have experienced stigma. And I think that is one of the reasons why you see so many LGBT people involved in a variety of activist causes that are not necessarily LGBT-specific.

Ray Suarez: Paul Taylor, of course, you couldn’t have done this survey without asking about marriage, and an interesting piece of data emerged there, near-universal support of legalization of marriage for gay people, 93 percent.

Yet, four out of 10 say the marriage debate has drawn too much attention from other issues that gay people face. Like what?

Paul Taylor: Like employment rights, like AIDS/HIV programs, like adoption rights. This is a community that has lots of issues. For political, constitutional, legal reasons, we all understand that the same-sex marriage issue has come to — become front and center.

And literally and figuratively, it has become the symbolic issue. And it obviously has very real importance as well. And a majority say, yes, it’s a good thing — 60 percent say it’s a good thing that it is the centerpiece issue, even at the expense of the other issues we care about, but a significant minority says, no, wait a minute, there are a lot of other things on the table.

Ray Suarez: So, Gary, when gay people talk about their lives and think about their lives, even though they see marriage as sort of drowning out the other issues, is it a gateway issue, that once you clear this threshold, some of those other things become easier?

Gary Gates: Well, I think in fact many LGBT people believe that’s the case.

But, as Paul pointed out, I think there is a bit of a challenge here from a sizable group of LGBT people who really see, for instance, workplace discrimination as something that they experience at relatively high levels, and that they believe that there should be laws that protect them from that kind of discrimination.

And, you know, and I think these data challenge to us think through all of those issues.

Ray Suarez: Leaning forward, did you ask people — well, I guess you asked people, also, to self-report about questions you didn’t ask and got, in your own words, some very touching responses.

Paul Taylor: Yes, this is — we conducted this survey online, which we think was methodologically wise, because it’s a more anonymous way of doing surveys, and part of the issue here is, are you willing to come out in a — to a survey taker?

And that also gave us the ability to put little boxes as people were filling out their forms on their computer, and we asked them for their comments.

Ray Suarez: Any one jump out at you?

Paul Taylor: No, but 1,000 jumped out at me.

And I used to be a newspaper reporter. And I kind of know a good quote. There were 1,000 good quotes. These stories are riveting, because the life these folks have led at all ages are fascinating. And the lives of the middle-aged and older survey respondents, who sort of say with regret, you know, I wish I had come out earlier, we track in all of their lives when they came out and how it was, some good, some bad, all fascinating.

Ray Suarez: Paul Taylor and Gary Gates, gentlemen, thank you both.

Source

Expansion of New York’s Human Rights Law to Include Gender Identity Would Protect an Estimated 41 Percent of New Yorkers From Discrimination

admin — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:00:59 +0000

For Immediate Distribution
June 12, 2013

Contact: Donald Gatlin, dgatlin@rabengroup.com, (202) 587-2871

NEW YORK — Amending New York’s Human Rights Law to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity would extend protections to an estimated 41 percent of New York’s population, including 23,800 transgender people, according to a Williams Institute study.

“This study highlights that existing policies against gender identity discrimination are limited in scope and do not protect many New Yorkers,” said co-author Christy Mallory, Reid Rasmussen Fellow of Law and Policy. “Given the limited patchwork of existing laws, state legislative action would provide more comprehensive and uniform coverage.”

Currently, 59 percent of New Yorkers are covered by 12 local ordinances that are inconsistent, limited and, at times, weaker than the state human rights law. For example, five ordinances do not provide protection in all areas covered by the state human rights law – employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and union practices. Further, three ordinances, unlike the state law, do not allow people who have experienced discrimination to sue.

The existing ordinances include seven cities (New York City, Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, Rochester, and Syracuse) three counties (Suffolk, Tompkins, and Westchester), and two towns (Brighton and Rhineback). Additionally, some lower state courts have interpreted New York’s prohibition on sex discrimination to protect transgender people, but these decisions have limited impact in future cases. A gubernatorial executive order also applies to protect state employees.

“In addition to protecting workers, our analysis suggests that a state-wide law would also benefit businesses by establishing a clear and uniform policy across the state,” said Mallory.

New York’s current Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, religion, disability, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, domestic violence victim status, military status, and predisposing genetic characteristics in public and private employment, housing, public accommodation, education, credit, and union practices. The state Division of Human Rights enforces the law, which allows individuals to file complaints with the agency or the courts. Remedies include reinstatement and back pay, among others.

Click here for the full study.

Local Laws and Government Policies Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Gender Identity in New York

admin — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:00:21 +0000

By Christy Mallory, Sarah Liebowitz
May 2013

Amending New York’s Human Rights Law to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity would extend protections to an estimated 41 percent of New York’s population, including 23,800 transgender people. Currently, 59 percent of New Yorkers are covered by 12 local ordinances that are inconsistent, limited and, at times, weaker than the state human rights law. For example, five ordinances do not provide protection in all areas covered by the state human rights law – employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and union practices. Further, three ordinances, unlike the state law, do not allow people who have experienced discrimination to sue.

Click here for full study.

Click here for press release.

Children Raised by Gay Parents Come of Age in Maryland

Adelin Lo — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:55:53 +0000

Baltimore Sun
By Jordan Bartel
June 11, 2013

This year’s Baltimore Pride is the first since marriage equality was passed in the state, but far from the first for Marylanders who grew up with gay parents.

A recent study released by the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law, found that 20 percent of same-sex couples in the Baltimore region are raising children. Just five other regions in the country had higher percentages. Based on data from the 2010 U.S. Census, Maryland now ranks 12th for the highest percentage of same-sex couples raising children.

Though the stats reflect recent population data, these couples have been around in the state for decades. We decided to talk to two such families, who raised children in the state as young adults and now have children who are adults themselves. We discussed their family life, how things have changed for them — or not — when attitudes in the state and nationwide have shifted more in support of gay rights and marriage equality. What have been their ups and downs, their struggles and their moments of happiness?

Here are their stories.

That Looks Familiar
Ken Travers and Bob Harris mark their anniversary by their first kiss.

That moment was exactly 33 years ago on the day we spoke last week. They still remember it well. “He was wearing a pink T-shirt,” said Harris.

But their long relationship has also included many hidden kisses. The couple met at a bar in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., when Travers was married and had three children. One of his children, Kate Oliver, was 4 when she met Harris. Travers, now 66, ended up divorcing Kate’s mom and coming out at the same time. He has been with Harris, 64, since, and mostly had one day a week with his children until a bitter custody battle ended and he split time more evenly when Kate was 13.

“When joint custody was reached with the kids, it was like me having the first full breath in a decade,” said Travers.

Oliver, now 37, was silent for a while as she listened to her father speak. She sat with them in their screened-in gazebo behind their home in Silver Spring, in a quiet neighborhood of winding streets, full blooming trees and mothers walking their children in strollers. Travers and Harris’ Maltese, Lucas, sat on her lap.

“If we didn’t maintain this illusion of separate bedrooms, of us not touching or showing affection around the kids, my lawyer said to me that I’d never see my children again,” said Travers.

“We knew, and we knew that we weren’t supposed to know or say anything,” Oliver said.

Eventually Oliver had what she called her “a-ha moment.” In high school, she had a teacher who was gay, and saw him once riding up an escalator with someone who was clearly his partner. She called out his name and waved. They heard her and reacted. “I saw the man with my teacher step back a little and then step off the escalator like they didn’t know each other,” said Oliver. “I thought, ‘That looks familiar.’ I had seen my dad do that his whole life with Bob.”

Oliver’s voice broke; her eyes watered. Her father sitting next to her silently looked at his daughter. It had been ingrained in Travers and Harris’ life to not be outwardly couple-y and affectionate. Even now, 33 years in, Harris, who was also once married with children, said he still hesitates when a patient recognizes Travers, an obstetrician. He still feels himself moving to distance himself.

Oliver said her relationships with her father and Bob have “evolved” over the years. She’s been direct since high school with people who asked about her “gay dads.” She eventually married and has two young daughters. Harris, once a trauma nurse, recently quit his job to provide child care for Oliver’s children — children’s playsets sit in their backyard, just beyond a manicured fish pond. To them, Travers is Grandpa, Harris is Pop Pop. Oliver has pushed for marriage equality in Maryland, talking with lawmakers in Annapolis, sometimes bringing along her daughters who would clutch pictures of Grandpa and Pop Pop.

Both Travers and Harris said getting married in Maryland now would be mostly symbolic. “Legally, [getting married] wouldn’t impact us much,” said Travers, who has set up power of attorney and other financial structures already with Harris. “But we want to marry in Maryland, having seen how hard my daughter worked it for it. It was really touching how hard she labored for it.”

They have had a commitment ceremony. In 2007, the pair celebrated in Hawaii, where they plan to move when Travers retires (they later had a civil union in the same state). Oliver and her family were there to watch what she rarely ever got to see between her father and man he has loved for so long — a kiss.

“Even then, we thought, ‘Oh my god — do we kiss?” said Harris. They did, in front of everyone, in front of their granddaughters.

And one later said, “I saw you!”

They Are It
Sometimes a family fits together so perfectly, the interactions seem effortless

As Rose O’Neill and her partner of 20 years, Tessa Pagones, posed for pictures with two of their children, the jokes flew. In the kitchen of their home in Westminster, they laughed about doing poses from the film “Zoolander.” How about “Blue Steel”? Rose suggested. No, “Le Tigre,” responded her daughter, Kelly O’Neill.

They all complement one another. Just a look to another family member can silently convey a feeling or a thought. There’s never just one person laughing — they laugh together. As a family.

“The household is laid back,” said their son, James O’Neill, 29. “They’re accepting of what we want to do with our lives. This house is a drama-free zone.”

And they all nodded in agreement. As a family.

Rose O’Neill, who turns 56 at the end of the month, met Tessa Pagones, 46, through riding and showing horses. They were friends for a few years; Rose O’Neill was married when they met. They became a couple a few years later, when Rose’s biological children were young — James was 9; middle son Colin O’Neill was 3; Kelly was a newborn.

“My mom and dad had split up, and Tessa being a part of our lives was nothing like an imposition for us,” said James. “It was never a problem. I never really cared about what they were or what other people said. I remember hearing the word ‘gay,’ and I asked Mom what it was and she told me, and talked about her and Tessa.”

Even as a toddler, Kelly gravitated to Pagones. “I remember meeting her and her looking at me,” said Pagones. “She was wary of strangers, but she kind of backed up slowly and ended up somehow sitting in my lap.”

“When I was 5, I got an understanding of what marriage was,” said Colin, 25, who was with his family in the kitchen, on a laptop via Skype from his home in West Philadelphia. “I always had this concept of love without boundaries.”

The three children spent time divided between their father and their mom and Pagones. O’Neill and Pagones moved to Westminster a decade ago, and eventually Kelly and Colin came to live with them. Colin took comfort in moving in with his moms after he came out himself.

There has been much happiness over the years, but difficulties. At one point O’Neill and Pagones broke up — O’Neill considered trying to make things work with her husband. “It was like all of a sudden my kids were gone,” said Pagones. Eventually Colin helped guide his mother. “I remember telling her, ‘You don’t need to try to make it work.’” As he said this, a face and voice on a laptop, his mom, standing behind the screen, seemed to connect with her son in a remarkable way. She smiled to herself, pondered his words, put her head down, and lifted it to reveal a look that acknowledged that her child had been right.

“I would hear people say meanly, ‘You have two moms,’ and I would say, ‘I know,’ he said. “That stopped the show.”

The children were never embarrassed — they were proud. Their moms were heavily involved in their children’s school activities: sports for James, music for Kelly and Colin (though O’Neill mentioned that she once volunteered to help with Girl Scouts and was never taken up on it). And the three noticed a change in their mother. “Beyond her just being happier and her true self, she became more adventurous — it was always ‘Let’s go here and do this’ when before everything was planned,” James said. “There was much more confidence.”

It was their love and support that helped get them through some trying times. They said that some neighbors who learned the two were a couple stopped speaking to them. James was once told by a friend’s mother that “We’ll pray for your moms.” Other times, interactions have been humorous. Pagones recalled a man who came to their house when they first moved in, asked them if they had husbands, and when they told him no, he said, ‘Hell, I guess you girls know what you want.”

Through 20 years and a rough divorce —O’Neill and her husband are now civil, she said — the couple has had a commitment ceremony, but has not married. “We’re holding out for DOMA,” said the women, almost at the same time, referring to a possible repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act law.

“I feel the whole gay factor has been a large ‘So what?’ for us,” said Pagones. “And I would really like society to catch up.”

But they will celebrate another wedding soon. Colin just got engaged to his partner and plans to marry in his moms’ backyard, perhaps next spring. “At the end of the day I take comfort in having three amazing parents who love me,” Colin said. “I wouldn’t change anything for that.”

Would the kids want their mothers to get married?

“If anyone deserves to get married, it’s you guys,” said Kelly. “They are it.”

They are “it” as in good parents? As in a model of love?

“Both,” said Kelly.

“Absolutely both,” said James.

Source

Are LGBTQ Members More Likely To Be Poor?

Adelin Lo — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:52:01 +0000

TGV News
By David Volz
June 11, 2013

The cost of college tuition is on the rise, along with everything else in the world. The question is, Are gays more likely to be poor? According to recent studies, yes.

The LGBTQ community suffers from bullying, whether you are in high school or are in college. If you are bullied in high school, are you going to want to go to college? Your answer will most likely be no. But in todays economy, you can not get a decent job, without a college degree. And sometimes even with the college degree, you still can not find a decent job.

A recent study from The Williams Institute, shows that members of the LGBTQ community, are more likely to be poor than straight people. Data was used from 4 different surveys, basically concludes that LGBTQ members are more vulnerable to being poor and that “same-sex couples are more vulnerable to poverty in general than are same-sex couples.”

Here are some of the facts, that the survey found out;

“ 10.2% of men in same-sex couples who live in small metropolitan areas are poor, compared with only 200296749-0013.3% of coupled gay men in large metropolitan areas.”
“ Almost one in four children living with a male same-sex couple are in poverty, compared to 12.1% of children living with married different-sex couples.”
“ 7.7% of gay male couples receive food stamps, compared to 6.5% of different-sex married couples.”

Lead study author M.V. Lee Badgett tells CNBC;

“I think people are surprised there are any poor gay people nothing that we don’t see poor gay people on television or in movies. This ‘myth of gay affluence’ has been around for a long time. It gets in the way of people even imagining that LGBT people can be poor.”

This study does not surprise me at all. With all of the torment and harassment that kids go through today, the LGBT community does not want to go to school, and go through all of the bullying. I personally remember back in high school, I hated it. Kids can be so cruel. And there were many times that I just wanted to quit, and be done with it. Nearly one third of the LGBT community, drop out of high school.

A study Lambda legal study shows that LGBT youth are 7 times more likely than other students, to be threatened or injured with a weapon at school. While 84% personally had been verbally harassed at school (that is, called names or threatened) because of their sexual orientation. 65.3% had been sexually harassed (e.g., inappropriately touched or subjected to sexual comments. • 77.9% heard remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school (similar studies have shown that the average high school student hears such epithets 25 times a day). 31% of gay students had missed at least an entire day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe based on their sexual orientation. And Gay youth are 4 times as likely than their non-gay counterparts to have attempted suicide.

If you or someone you know is being bullied, please speak up about it. You can not solve the issue, if you stay quiet.

Source

LGBTI Human Rights in the Caribbean

admin — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:54:19 +0000

University of The West Indies – Mona, Jamaica
Friday, June 7, 2013

Sponsored by
The University of the West Indies
The Network of Latin American Scholars on Gender, Sexuality and Legal Education ALAS
The Williams Institute
The Impact Litigation Project at WCL

Almost six years since the 2007 launch of the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, LGBTI rights remain peripheral to human rights movements in the Caribbean. In similar fashion, LGBTI communities and rights advocates in the region continue to experience extreme marginalization. On June 7, 2013, Caribbean litigators, academics, civil society leaders, and LGBTI community members will gather to discuss the strengthening of the regional advocacy network, advocacy strategies, and the future of LGBTI human rights in the Caribbean.

For more information, please email Macarena Saez at msaez@wcl.american.edu.

CONFERENCE AGENDA

8:00 – 8:30 am Registration
8:30 – 9:00 am Opening Remarks

MORNING WORKSHOPS

9:15 – 10:30 am Identifying, Documenting, and Reporting Rights Abuses Against LGBTI Persons

Panelists will address current issues relating to LGBTI rights abuses, including issues of law enforcement, civil discrimination and confidentiality and safety concerns.

Gary Gates, Williams Distinguished Scholar, The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
Jaevion Nelson, Activist, Jamaica
Se-shauna Wheatle, Stipendiary lecturer, Exeter College, Oxford, UK
Janeille Matthews (moderator) Lecturer, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica

10:45 am – 12:00 pm The Role of the Legal Profession in Strengthening LGBTI Human Rights Norms

Panelists will discuss the pros and cons of litigation and advocacy; the role of legal academia; and the challenges of developing a human rights curriculum to mainstream LGBTI rights issues into traditional legal training.

Lisa Shoman, Human Rights Attorney – Belize
Ritchie Maitland, Human Rights Attorney – Grenada
Colin Robinson, Executive Director, The Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation – Trinidad and Tobago
Lara Stemple, Director, Health & Human Rights Law Project, UCLA School of Law
Ginna Anderson (moderator), American Bar Association

12:00 – 1:00 pm LUNCH BREAK

AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS

1:15 – 2:30 pm Harmonizing Advocacy: Lobbying, Litigating, and Grassroots Organizing

Panelists will address existing dissonance in advocacy strategies and potential synergies between advocates, litigators, civil society leaders, and the public.

Rishi Dass, Human Rights Attorney – Trinidad and Tobago
Dane Lewis, President, Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays
Vidya Kissoon, Activist, Guyana (*by video link)
Erin Greene, Rainbow Alliance, the Bahamas
Arif Bulkan (moderator), Lecturer, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

2:45 – 3:45 pm Ensuring Safety in a Culturally Charged Atmosphere

Panelists will discuss the potential retaliation against LGBTI rights advocates and propose systems of managing and responding to threats of violence.

Colleen McEwan, Executive Director, Guyana Rainbow Foundation, Guyana
Caleb Orozco, Executive President, United Belize Advocacy Movement – Belize
Darryl Phillip, Founder, CHAP – Dominica
Maurice Tomlinson, Attorney-at-Law
Westmin James (moderator), Lecturer in Law, UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados

4:00 – 5:15 pm Gender, Sexuality and Violence

Panelists will explore the convergences and divergences between approaches to gender violence and LGBT violence.

María Mercedes Gómez, Program Coordinator, IGLHRC; Co-ordinator, ALAS Network
Charmaine Crawford, Lecturer, IGDS, UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados
Taitu Heron, Postgraduate Researcher, SALISES, UWI, Mona campus, Jamaica
Brenda Smith, Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, American University
Macarena Saez (moderator), Professor of Law, American University; Chair, Impact Litigation Project

5:30 – 7:00 pm Closing Reception & Book Launch: “Gender and Sexuality in Latin America: cases and Decisions”

This is the first casebook that analyzes legal decisions affecting gender and sexuality in Latin America. The original version edited by legal scholars Cristina Motta and Macarena Saez was published in Spanish in 2008. The abridged and updated version in English has been recently published by Springer, with the aim of facilitating a dialogue on gender and sexuality between Spanish and English speaking activists and scholars.

An Evening Dedicated to LGBTI Rights in Uganda

Adelin Lo — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:03:26 +0000

The American Jewish World Service and Horizons Foundation present an evening to celebrate pride and build movements. Featuring a preview performance by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews of Witness Uganda and special guest, Julius Kaggwa.

Monday, June 10, 2013
Beth Chayim Chadashim
6090 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035

7:30 P.M.
*Admission is free but space is limited.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

About the Play:
Witness Uganda, which will premiere at the American Repertory Theater in 2014 directed by three-time Tony Award nominee Diane Paulus, is the recipient of the 2012 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater. Through the eyes of an American working with orphaned teenagers, the play explores complex issues of sexuality, poverty, and the politics of humanitarian aid.

About the Guest:

Julius Kaggwa is the executive director of Support Initiative for People with atypical sex Development (SIPD), a grassroots organization in Uganda that promotes human rights for children and adults with intersex conditions. Julius also plays a lead role in a coalition of 51 Ugandan civil society organizations that is working to stop Uganda’s proposed anti-homosexuality bill. In recognition of Julius’ work, he received the 2010 Human Rights Award from Human Rights First.

Community Co-Sponsors

Exhibit A for a Major Shift: Justices’ Gay Clerks

Adelin Lo — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 16:13:39 +0000

By Adam Liptak
June 8, 2013
New York Times

As Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was struggling with how to cast the decisive vote in a 1986 Supreme Court case that would end up devastating the gay rights movement, he told his fellow justices that he had never met a homosexual.

In truth, one of his four law clerks that term was gay.

The atmosphere at the court today is far different from 1986, with a pace of change that may have surpassed that in the rest of society. Openly gay law clerks are now common in the chambers of both liberal and conservative justices. In January, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. formally admitted about 30 members of the National LGBT Bar Association to the Supreme Court’s bar, the first time lawyers with a gay legal group achieved that status.

As the justices consider two major cases on same-sex marriage, with decisions expected this month, they are, of course, focused on legal issues. But students of the court say other factors may also play a role.

“In addressing for the first time whether the law must recognize lesbian and gay couples as families,” said David C. Codell, who served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “certain of the justices undoubtedly will reflect upon their real-world experiences of getting to know and to understand lesbian and gay people as individuals and as members of families.”

The justices are weighing whether to strike down a federal law that denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples in states that allow such unions, as well as California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The second case could establish a nationwide constitutional right to same-sex marriage, though most observers expect a narrower ruling.

Over the years, the court’s embrace of gay rights has closely tracked changes in popular attitudes, in the legal culture and, perhaps especially, in the visibility of openly gay people at the court. In 1986, when Justice Powell made his remark, there had never been an openly gay law clerk at the Supreme Court. At the time, it was often professionally hazardous for gay lawyers to come out.

Although no comprehensive record of gay Supreme Court law clerks exists, Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price — authors of “Courting Justice,” a 2001 history of gay rights cases at the court — identified 18 gay men and four lesbians who had been clerks. Ms. Murdoch and Ms. Price also found that the justice most likely to hire gay clerks was the one who said he had never met a homosexual.

“For six consecutive terms in the 1980s,” they wrote, “one or more of Powell’s four clerks was gay.”

Daniel R. Ortiz, who clerked for Justice Powell in 1984 and 1985 and is now a law professor at the University of Virginia, said the clerks of that era kept their sexual orientations to themselves in professional settings. “I certainly wasn’t out to anyone who worked at the court,” he said.

In the next term, the court issued Bowers v. Hardwick, the 5-to-4 decision in which Justice Powell’s vote was crucial. The decision upheld a Georgia law that made sodomy a crime.

Former clerks and court historians agree that Justice Powell made the remark about having never met a homosexual during a private conference with his fellow justices as they considered the case. According to many accounts, he made a similar statement in front of a clerk.

Pamela S. Karlan, now a law professor at Stanford, heard about the comment from her boss that term, Justice Harry A. Blackmun. In a recent interview, she also recalled Justice Blackmun’s response: “Look around your chambers.”

C. Cabell Chinnis, a gay lawyer who practices law in Palo Alto, Calif., was one of Justice Powell’s clerks as the justice was struggling with how to vote in the Hardwick case. In an interview, Mr. Chinnis said his boss must have known about his sexual orientation. “He had met my boyfriend,” Mr. Chinnis said.

Indeed, the justice sought him out for advice precisely because he wanted to learn about the mechanics of gay sex, Mr. Chinnis said, recalling an uncomfortable exchange on the subject. “This 78-year-old man is asking me about erections at the Supreme Court,” he said.

The conversation was unusual, as Mr. Chinnis was not the clerk who had been assigned to work on that case. But the two kept talking as the justice wrestled with the issues in the case. At one point, Mr. Chinnis recalled, he made a plea to his boss based on a comparison to a pending case about the right to vote in judicial elections.

“It’s more important to me to make love to the person I love,” Mr. Chinnis remembered saying, “than to vote for a judge in a local election.”

Mr. Chinnis said he had a theory about one of Justice Powell’s motivations in saying something untrue to the other members of the court: to protect his clerk and perhaps others.

“Even though he knew one or more people who were gay, they were young and vulnerable,” Mr. Chinnis said. “Coming out in a professional setting could be very dangerous.”

John C. Jeffries Jr., a former Powell clerk who teaches law at the University of Virginia and wrote a 1994 biography of the justice, offered another reason for the comment. “He did not notice things about people that he considered uncomplimentary,” Professor Jeffries said of Justice Powell, who he said thought homosexuality “was a slur or an embarrassment.”

At the justices’ conference, Justice Powell voted to strike down the Georgia law before later changing his vote. Mr. Chinnis, who had been euphoric when he learned of his boss’s initial vote, was now heartsick. “I was dumbstruck,” he said. “It was a tremendous disappointment.”

An impassioned dissent from Justice Blackmun correctly predicted that the decision would not last. Other clerks said the dissent was written by Professor Karlan, who is in a committed relationship with a woman. (Professor Karlan maintains a tactful silence on the authorship.)

Justice Powell retired the next year and was succeeded by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who is widely seen as the swing vote in the current gay rights cases.

Within just a few years, the climate for gay rights began to change. Justice Powell himself, in 1990, expressed reservations about his vote in the Hardwick case. “I think I probably made a mistake in that one,” he said at New York University’s law school.

Paul M. Smith, a gay lawyer who clerked for Justice Powell in 1980 and 1981, said that by the 1990s, “people started to be out in their clerkship applications.”

By 2003, when Mr. Smith argued and won Lawrence v. Texas, which overruled the Hardwick decision, openly gay clerks were becoming common. Matthew B. Berry, who is gay and served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas in 2001 and 2002, said his boss went out of his way to make his boyfriend feel welcome at the court.

“I was in a long-distance relationship,” Mr. Berry said. “When my boyfriend came to see an oral argument, the justice was very generous with his time and spent about 45 minutes talking to him and me. He would do that when clerks’ family members visited the court.”

These days, justices are more likely to work and socialize with openly gay people than most Americans are. That is partly because 10 percent of adults who live in the District of Columbia say they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, according to a February Gallup poll. That is a much higher percentage than in any state.

Law schools and the legal profession have, moreover, been particularly welcoming to gays and lesbians, a trend Justice Antonin Scalia criticized in his dissent in the Lawrence case.

“Today’s opinion,” Justice Scalia wrote, “is the product of a court, which is the product of a law profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.”

In January of this year, Mr. Smith was the lawyer who stood before Chief Justice Roberts and asked him to admit the 30 or so members of the National LGBT Bar Association to the Supreme Court’s bar, a largely honorary status.

The lawyers stood, and the chief justice gave his customary cordial welcome to new members of the bar, as part of a ceremony that precedes almost every public session of the court.

“The court was quite matter of fact about it,” Mr. Smith said.

Professor Jeffries, the Powell biographer and Virginia professor, said the presence of openly gay clerks at the Supreme Court these days is but an instance of a societal transformation on gay rights.

“The universe has flipped” since 1986, he said. “Everything about the world has changed. The fact of gay clerks is a grain of sand in that beach.”

Source

Exhibit A for a Major Shift: Justices’ Gay Clerks

Adelin Lo — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 16:11:21 +0000

New York Times
By Adam Liptak
June 8, 2013