International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) is an annual event observed on March 31 that is dedicated to celebrating transgender individuals and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. For Transgender Day of Visibility 2021, NCLR is highlighting the voices of our transgender youth staff members who have chosen to share their experiences, expertise, and what visibility means to them. Lexi Adsit (she/her)NCLR Donor Engagement Manager “When I...
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently issued a regulation that requires any homeless shelter that receives federal funding to treat transgender people equally. The rule expressly requires that shelters must house transgender individuals based on their gender identity. The rule is an important coda to the groundbreaking Equal Access Rule issued by the agency back in 2012, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital...
Being a teenager in the juvenile justice system is challenging for any young person, but as Cyryna can attest, being transgender adds an additional layer of fear. Cyryna, a transgender girl, experienced the dark reality that most people don’t talk about while being housed in a juvenile correction facility for boys, where she was the victim of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse by many of the boys she was housed with. Some of her abuse was witnessed by, and sometimes encouraged by, the...
The advertisement from the Child Protection League Action that appeared in several newspapers across Minnesota last Sunday—attacking the Minnesota High School League’s proposed policy to address transgender student-athletes—was misleading and dangerous. The proposed policy has nothing to do with “male” students playing on girls’ teams. Rather, it has to do with transgender students—a tiny fraction of the population whose sex at birth is different from who they know they are on the inside, and...
In the wake of the elections, transgender people across the country are struggling to understand what the future may hold for our communities. In the past two decades—and especially in the past eight years under President Obama—we have made so many gains in employment protections, health care, student rights, family law, asylum, federally funded housing programs and homeless shelters, and other areas. In addition, President Obama has protected federal benefits programs and made health care...
Today, International Transgender Day of Remembrance is being observed worldwide. It is day to honor the memory of transgender people we have lost to senseless acts of hatred and violence and to reflect on the transgender community’s incredible strength and resilience. Both globally and in the United States, transgender people—and transgender women of color in particular—are assaulted and often murdered with impunity, simply because of who they are. In most cases, these crimes are not...
Earlier this month, California became the first state in the nation to enact legislation giving transgender children and youth in foster care the right to live in settings that reflect and respect their gender identity. Senate Bill 731 is a clear articulation of the state’s explicit commitment to treat all foster youth equally and to prohibit identity-based discrimination in foster care settings. The legislation erases any remaining confusion or uncertainty: child welfare workers who...
* This piece originally appeared in them.us on September 10, 2018. A vote this November on trans rights in Massachusetts could have wide-ranging national consequences. by Shannon Minter & Jennifer Levi This November, Massachusetts voters will be the first anywhere to be asked whether they will retain a statewide law protecting transgender people’s equal access to public places. The law, Bill S.2047, was passed in 2016 with bipartisan support and signed by a Republican governor. For over...
Each year, as the new school year begins, my social media feeds are filled with stories of families of transgender youth asking school and district administrators to respect and affirm their child’s gender identity. Overwhelmingly, administrators and teachers are stepping up, educating themselves about how to meet the unique needs of transgender students in school. Some school systems have even devoted precious staff training time on this topic. Taking these steps fosters a safe and welcoming...
HealthCare is Caring Parents play a critical role in ensuring that transgender youth get the care and support they need, including supportive healthcare. Transgender healthcare is recognized as the standard of care by every major medical association, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The treatments are safe and effective, and the same treatments have long been prescribed for other related medical...
On April 29, 2014, the United States Department of Education (DOE) released guidance that will have a significant impact on ongoing efforts to protect transgender and gender nonconforming students. The guidance, which focused on schools’ obligations to combat sexual assault on campus, explicitly recognized Title IX protects transgender students from discrimination. This is a great development that provides much-needed clarity around the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming students....
From the Desk of Kate Kendell, Esq. Dear Friend of NCLR, There’s always an exciting buzz in our office this time of year, with everyone playing a part to bring you our best Anniversary Celebration. This year, our 34th Anniversary Celebration will be especially exciting, as we not only celebrate the unprecedented milestones achieved for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality over the last year, but look ahead to even more historic possibilities, including consigning the so-called...
By Jaan Williams This year has been one of the most violent in recent history for the transgender community. Washington, D.C., where I live, in particular has witnessed the murders of two transgender women and violent attacks against at least six more since July. The severity of these attacks, including two incidents where off-duty D.C. police officers assaulted transgender women, has finally prompted widespread media coverage of violence against the transgender community. This coverage, and...
Oprima aquí para leer la versión en Español de esta publicación [Editor’s note: Name changed in this article to protect NCLR client’s privacy.] After a lifetime of hardship, Sammie, an NCLR Immigration Project client, has finally found a new sense of community and belonging with the San Francisco based organization El/La Para TransLatinas. With the strength of her community behind her, Sammie continues to spread positivity for all transgender Latinx people escaping persecution and extends her...
Interacting with law enforcement can be stressful for anyone. This is especially true of transgender individuals who all too often face discrimination, inappropriate comments, and hostility. While most law enforcement personnel want to do what is right, we hear from many transgender people about the demeaning and degrading experiences they have had while under police custody. That’s why the National Center for Lesbian Rights, along with several other national and local LGBTQ groups, worked...
By Liz Seaton NCLR State Policy Director All of us who have worked long and hard for equality under the law for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people know how strangely eager some people are to twist and distort the truth about us and our lives. Their ultimate goal? To dissuade public officials from passing laws to end discrimination. I won’t even dignify the ugliest things they say by repeating them, but you know what I am talking about. Our opponents also make sweeping claims about...
As Congress considers overhauling and repairing our broken immigration system, NCLR has been committed to identifying areas where LGBTQ immigrants are especially vulnerable and working to ensure those issues are addressed. Detention facilities and standards for transgender detainees is one such area of heightened vulnerability. Immigrants in the U.S. are detained in detention facilities for a number of reasons, including non-punitive reasons like while they are seeking asylum or refugee...
Now that the midterms are over, President Obama has an opportunity to further his legacy as a strong supporter of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans and as a leader who understands that making U.S. armed forces more equal makes them stronger. President Obama should ask Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to review the rules governing military service by transgender people with the ultimate goal of removing the current provisions that require their discharge. ...
I received a letter from a prisoner a few weeks ago that still haunts me. The prisoner, a transgender woman of color, tried to remove her own testicles after she was repeatedly denied medical care for her gender dysphoria. While this might seem extreme to people outside of prison, these incidents of “self-surgery” happen regularly in prisons and jails across the country. There are thousands of transgender prisoners housed in correctional facilities who need basic medical care, protection from...
Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Gender Justice, and Legal Voice submitted public comments in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) request for comments on its Revised Recommendations for industry practices on blood donation policies for gay men and transgender individuals. Although we are encouraged that the FDA is reconsidering its longstanding policy of indefinite deferral of men who have sex with men (MSM) from blood and blood products donation, the...
On November 25, 2019, the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed an amicus brief in the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in support of Gavin Grimm, a transgender student who was mistreated in school because he is transgender. Representing a coalition of organizations that work with families raising transgender youth, the brief tells the stories of families raising transgender children in states within the Fourth Circuit (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South...
During Lesbian Visibility Week, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Center for Transgender Equality, and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund honor the lives and experiences of transgender and non-binary lesbians. We affirm that trans women are women and that trans and non-binary lesbians are a valued part of the LGBTQ community. As politicians and policymakers seek to strip LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, of their freedoms, it is important for us to stand...
SUBMIT COMMENTS SUMMARY OF ISSUE On Friday, July 23, 2020, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a new rule that would gut protections for transgender people seeking safe shelter. This rule would strip away current protections that prohibit federally-funded homeless shelters from discriminating against transgender people. The new rule permits shelters to discriminate, which will result in needless suffering and death. No one should be denied access to a homeless...
It’s hard to believe that many people think the law of the land already protects LGBTQ people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In reality, not only are there no federal protections regarding employment discrimination for the LGBTQ community, only 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Without these crucial protections, the transgender community remains...
Last month, North Carolina enacted HB2, one of the most viciously anti-civil rights laws in the country. In addition to repealing local minimum wage laws and local protections for LGBTQ people, HB2 stripped women, people of color, and other protected groups of the ability to bring discrimination cases in state courts. HB2 also openly attacked transgender people. HB2’s supporters demonized transgender people as deviants who must be excluded from shared bathrooms and locker rooms to “protect”...
Providing healthcare to all of our nation’s veterans is the right thing to do. Federal law requires the Veterans Administration (“VA”) to “furnish hospital care and medical services” to veterans. For most veterans, this means that after serving in the military they receive comprehensive medical care from the VA. Right now, transgender veterans’ healthcare coverage is at risk. On July 9, the Trump Administration announced it will be deciding whether to provide transgender veterans with...
The spate of anti-transgender youth bills that are proliferating around the United States is insidious and incredibly harmful to the health and well-being of transgender youth in more than half of the country. NCLR Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon speaks about the dangers of these bills restricting medical care and sports access for transgender kids, and urges you to contact your legislators to strongly oppose them NOW! Imani also shares a message of hope and love to the transgender...
“An Exercise in Politics, Not Good Medicine” This year, in a coordinated attack on the LGBTQ community, legislators in states across the country have passed scores of laws that threaten and endanger LGBTQ people, their families, and their communities. NCLR has been at the forefront of the fight against anti-LGBTQ laws for decades, but we have never seen such an aggressive campaign against LGBTQ youth and their families. NCLR will keep fighting these unconstitutional laws,...
Transgender youth face unique legal issues and challenges in the fight for equality. NCLR is the only LGBTQ legal organization with a project focused on the little “t” in LGBTQ and has been a leading advocate for the rights of transgender youth. Through litigation and advocacy, NCLR has helped ensure that transgender youth have the support and opportunities they need to thrive.
On January 20, 2015, NCLR and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas supporting former Saks Fifth Avenue employee Leyth Jamal, who filed a case alleging that Saks discriminated against her for being transgender. In a request to dismiss the lawsuit, Saks argued‚–contrary to contemporary case law, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice‚–that...
From the Desk of Kate Kendell, Esq. Dear Friend of NCLR, If you live anywhere but in San Francisco, you are in the dog days of summer—you know, those long, hot, sunny, sweltering, shorts-and-short-sleeves sort of days with warm and sweaty evenings? Lucky you. At this time of year in San Francisco, we wake up in fog and come home in fog—chilly, cool, swirling fog. But I am not complaining. This has been a great summer so far. My family is great, the kids are having a blast being out of school,...
A CRISIS IN FLORIDA Over the past two years, the state of Florida has enacted several laws that negatively impact the LGBTQ community and our families in the Sunshine State. From banning transgender healthcare to removing books with positive representations of LGBTQ characters from libraries, banning transgender girls from playing sports, and making it illegal just to say “gay” or “trans” in schools, the state legislature has actively worked to make life exceedingly...
This week, CeCe McDonald was released early after being unjustly sentenced to forty-one months in prison in May 2012 after pleading guilty to reduced second-degree murder for the death of Dean Schmitz, one of the people who attacked her. In June 2011, CeCe was the victim of a racist and transphobic hate crime while on her way to a grocery store. She was viciously attacked by a group of people, including Schmitz. In the resulting confrontation, Schmitz was fatally stabbed. Despite being the...
On July 30th, a 15-year old trans girl was stabbed on a metro platform in Washington, D.C. Though it has not yet been formally designated a hate crime, given the facts surrounding the incident, it seems clear that this young girl was attacked because of her gender identity. This is sadly the case for most violence against trans people, particularly trans women of color. While the victim of this horrendous crime is fortunately in stable condition, this is not the case for many of our sisters...
Transgender Day of Remembrance is a time for the LGBTQI+ community and its allies to come together in the Coachella Valley in solidarity and be one voice to protect this community from violence, oppression, and discrimination. NCLR is a proud sponsor of this year’s Trans Day of Remembrance in both San Francisco and Palm Springs, CA. First Transgender Immigrant Symposium & Second Global South Transgender Day of Remembrance November 18, 2022 11:30 am – 5:30 pm455 Golden Gate Avenue,...
This handbook provides activists and policymakers with the tools they need to pass transgender-inclusive non-discrimination and anti-violence legislation. Written by three of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement’s brightest transgender scholar-activists, Transgender Equality is an invaluable resource guide, providing an introduction to transgender issues, model language for legislation, talking points, responses to frequently asked questions, and a comprehensive resource...
From the Desk of Kate Kendell, Esq. Dear Friend of NCLR, The year has just begun and history has already been made for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality, setting a high bar for the rest of the year. Just a few weeks ago, we stood with our clients—high school seniors Desiree “Dez” Shelton and Sarah Lindstrom, who are an out lesbian couple—as they challenged their Minnesota school district so they could walk together as part of the royal court of their school’s winter...
NCLR’s Legal Director Shannon Minter testified in a U.S House of Representatives hearing on medical care for transgender youth, urging members to respect the freedom of parents of transgender youth to obtain essential medical care for their children. Shannon was joined by Myriam Reynolds, the mother of NCLR’s 2022 Courage Awardee, Cameron Wright. NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter in the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Hearing Room In his statement, Shannon helped...
Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights joins more than 50 other LGBTQ organizations calling for unity and an end to hate and discrimination following the June 12, 2016 shooting at an Orlando, Florida LGBTQ bar that left 49 people dead and more than 50 seriously injured. Joint Statement We the undersigned organizations working on the front lines of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) movement share in the profound grief for those who were killed and many more who...
R.M.A. is a transgender student in the Blue Springs School District. He sued his school for violating the Missouri Human Rights Act by excluding him from the boys’ restrooms and locker rooms at school. The school district filed a motion to dismiss. The trial court agreed with the district that the definition of “sex” under the MHRA does not include transgender people and granted the district’s motion. That decision was affirmed by the Western Division of the Missouri...
On November 11, 2017, a group of parents challenged their local school district’s policy of permitting transgender students to use the facilities consistent with the student’s gender identity. The school district moved to dismiss the complaint. On July 24, 2018, the District Court dismissed the parents’ claims, finding that the district’s transgender-inclusive policies do not violate the rights of non-transgender students. The parents appealed. On March 11, 2019, the...
Katharine Prescott, holds a photo of her late son Kyler Prescott, in the memorial garden they created in his memory at their home in Vista, California September 21, 2016. About Kyler On September 26, 2016, the mother of a transgender teenaged boy who was admitted into Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego (RCHSD) for inpatient care filed a lawsuit against the hospital for discrimination against her son. Katharine Prescott took her 14-year-old son, Kyler Prescott, to RCHSD in early April...
On August 21, 2020, NCLR and Lambda Legal led a coalition of LGBTQ advocacy organizations and legal aid groups in submitting a proposed amicus brief urging California’s Fifth Appellate District to reverse a trial court ruling against Maddie Wade, a former employee of Starbucks in Fresno. On August 27, 2020, the court granted leave to file the amicus brief. The case is Wade v. Starbucks Corporation. Maddie Wade, who worked for Starbucks for eight years, sued Starbucks and her former manager,...
On September 26, 2016, the mother of a transgender teenaged boy who was admitted into Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego (RCHSD) for inpatient care filed a lawsuit against the hospital for discrimination against her son. Katharine Prescott took her 14-year-old son, Kyler Prescott, to RCHSD in early April 2015 for suicidal ideation and for treatment of his serious self-inflicted injuries following an incident of transphobic harassment by his peers. The hospital was aware that Kyler was a...
Plaintiffs Helen Roe, James Poe, and Carl Voe are transgender children who are unable to correct the gender markers on their birth certificates because of Arizona’s discriminatory laws. Arizona requires transgender people to undergo surgery to obtain a birth certificate that matches who they are. That surgery requirement is particularly harmful to transgender young people, like D.T., Jane, and Helen, because it is not medically appropriate for them to undergo those surgeries at...
Here’s what they mean for you. If the term “federal regulations” doesn’t feel all that relevant or interesting to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The term does perhaps sound a little dry and boring. But, as it turns out, federal regulations are actually very important and shape many aspects of our lives, even if we’re not aware of it. Recently, two federal agencies – the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services – issued important new...
You already know that the NCLR staff is comprised of talented and wicked-smart individuals who possess an unwavering commitment to the full dignity and humanity of all LGBTQ people. But you don’t often hear directly from the key staff members who make so much of what we do possible. Today, in this message from NCLR Staff Attorney Asaf Orr, you will hear the story of a young boy who made an impact far beyond his 14 years, and whose courage and refusal to be diminished will make life...
Watch Legal Director of NCLR Shannon Minter, Transgender Rights Project Director of GLAD Jennifer Levi, and plaintiffs Nicolas Talbott and Blaire McIntyre as they discuss the impacts of President Biden’s lifting of the transgender military ban and how it marks a turning point for transgender rights. Blaire McIntyre (plaintiff, McIntyre v. Whitmer) is a Specialist in the Michigan Army National Guard and previously served in the active-duty Army 101st Airborne Division. She currently works...
As a young, trans woman, I’m very honored to be able to share this message with you today on Transgender Day of Visibility. This year more than ever it is important that we use whatever voice and presence we can muster to lift up those who need the most help and support in our community. I am proud to recognize my trans and nonbinary siblings for standing up firmly against the wave of fearmongering and repression that is sweeping across so many states in the US. For example, just this past...
Drew Adams is a transgender student at Neese High School. He sued his school for excluding him from the boys’ restrooms at school. On July 26, 2018, Judge Corrigan ruled that the school’s restroom policy violated the U.S. Constitution and Title IX and ordered the school to permit Drew to use the boys’ restrooms. The school board appealed. On February 28, 2019, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, along with Cooley LLP and the Transgender Law Center, filed an amicus brief...
On April 18, 2019, National Center for Lesbian Rights, joined by 12 other groups dedicated to ensuring the treatment of LGBTQ people, filed an amicus brief in Minton v. Dignity Health, a case brought by Evan Minton, a transgender man whose hysterectomy was suddenly cancelled by a Dignity Health hospital due to religious reasons after the hospital learned Mr. Minton was transgender. The lawsuit, filed in state court in California, alleges that Dignity Health’s cancellation of the...
A group of nontransgender students in the Boyertown Area School District sued the school district for allowing transgender students to access facilities that were consistent with their gender identity. The students claimed that the school district’s policy violated their right to privacy and created a hostile school environment. Following an evidentiary hearing, the District Court rejected each of those claims. The students appealed. On January 23, 2018, the National Center for Lesbian Rights,...
Gavin Grimm transitioned in his sophomore year of high school and started using the boys’ restroom. Despite using the restroom for nearly two months without incident, the Gloucester County School Board adopted a policy prohibiting him and other transgender students from using the facilities that match their gender identity. Gavin sued his school district for violating federal law. Gavin eventually graduated, but the school district continued to discriminate against him by refusing...
We are thrilled to help sponsor this year’s San Francisco Transgender Film Festival! SFTFF screens films that promote the visibility of transgender and gender variant people and challenge the mainstream media’s negative stereotypes of our communities. They provide opportunities for transgender and gender variant media artists, build community through our film and performance events, and engage our audiences in cross-community dialogue. For more information on the programs and tickets,...
We are thrilled to help sponsor this year’s San Francisco Transgender Film Festival! SFTFF screens films that promote the visibility of transgender and gender variant people and challenge the mainstream media’s negative stereotypes of our communities. They provide opportunities for transgender and gender variant media artists, build community through our film and performance events, and engage our audiences in cross-community dialogue. For more information on the programs and tickets,...
We are thrilled to help sponsor this year’s San Francisco Transgender Film Festival! SFTFF screens films that promote the visibility of transgender and gender variant people and challenge the mainstream media’s negative stereotypes of our communities. They provide opportunities for transgender and gender variant media artists, build community through our film and performance events, and engage our audiences in cross-community dialogue. For more information on the programs and tickets,...
November 10-11: in-personNovember 12-20: online For 25 years, SFTFF has screened films that promote the visibility of transgender and gender variant people and challenge the mainstream media’s negative stereotypes of our communities. We provide opportunities for transgender and gender variant media artists, build community through our film and performance events, and engage our audiences in cross-community dialogue. This year, SFTFF curated 7 brilliant programs featuring over 40 films, both...
Because of the persistence of bias and discrimination against transgender people generally, the societal lack of understanding of gender and sexuality, and a distrust of difference, transgender youth are at high risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. For many of these youth, their gender identity is relevant both to why they were arrested and to their needs once they are brought into the courtroom. This article discusses how law, policy, and legal representation are regularly...
This guide—a National Center for Lesbian Rights and ACLU joint publication—identifies laws, court decisions, advocacy tips, and other resources that may be helpful for adult transgender prisoners. Each transgender person’s experience in prison and jail is different, in part because the conditions vary a great deal from one prison to another and change over time. However, the safety and health of every transgender prisoner in the United States is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution no matter...
Something to be Grateful for this Holiday Season Dear Friend of NCLR, I know this is a time of year where we are supposed to be thankful, embracing family and friends, expressing gratitude for all the good things we enjoy. But this year, I confess to being slow to warm up to the whole good tidings and merriment mood that the season traditionally inspires. Yesterday we were reminded that there’s still much work ahead to bend the arc of justice to include opportunities for immigrant children,...
On November 3, NCLR filed a petition asking the US Supreme Court to review a devastating decision by the Sixth Circuit allowing states to completely ban medical care for transgender adolescents. This decision is not only extremely harmful in itself, but it also invites states to trample on the rights of vulnerable families and to target LGBTQ people with impunity. We are under attack, but we are fighting back, and in many cases, we are winning. We cannot allow this appalling decision to...
Since NCLR’s founding 35 years ago, we have worked to advance family law for LGBTQ people and their families. NCLR has helped change the law in numerous states over the years, including prohibiting courts from taking custody away from a parent just because of his or her sexual orientation, allowing same-sex couples to adopt, ensuring that transgender parents are recognized and protected, and recognizing all non-biological and non- adoptive parents as legal parents of their children. Although...
Want to hear something really scary? This Halloween, there is one treat that is actually a dangerous trick that could harm young people everywhere: Jelly Belly candies. And the trick isn’t the few seconds of horror that may result from biting into the dreaded canned dog food, vomit or even the baby wipe flavored jelly beans (yes those are real flavors). Jelly Belly Chair Herman Rowland Sr. is using some of his fortune to fund an effort to overturn California’s new School Success and...
The plight of Jane Doe, a 16-year-old transgender girl in the custody of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families (DCF), should provoke national outrage. Jane’s story represents one of the most devastating examples of how public systems fail the most vulnerable youth in their care and custody. Removed from her family at the tender age of five, Jane has endured unrelenting brutality and abuse while in the custody of the system charged with protecting her. Despite the fact that Jane...
One of the most horrific anti-transgender bills in the country will move before South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard for consideration as early as today. House Bill 1008 forces transgender students to use a separate bathroom from all other students and prohibits schools from having supportive policies treating them the same as other students. If Governor Dennis Daugaard signs it into law, South Dakota will be the first state to pass this shameful attack on transgender students, but trust me: It...
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, struck down two onerous and medically unwarranted restrictions on abortion. The 5-3 ruling came in a legal challenge to the Texas legislature’s harmful anti-abortion law, House Bill 2 (HB2), passed in 2013. HB2 was enacted to make safe abortion care more difficult to provide and obtain and has resulted in the closure of nearly 75 percent of the clinics in the state of Texas, forcing some women to drive up to...
NCLR Philanthropy Coordinator Misa Ridgway receives some gender affirmations during Pride Month! Happy Pride Month! This month, we not only celebrate the wins of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but we also want to highlight the wins achieved by queer individuals. Our very own Philanthropy Coordinator Misa Ridgway had a win of his own earlier this month in June 2022. Misa joined NCLR around the same time that I did in the late fall of 2021. He was drawn to work at NCLR because he loves the...
When B.H. was in second grade, his peers began bullying and ostracizing him because he’s transgender. Worse, some parents organized a campaign to force the school district to stop treating B.H. as male, and to prohibit him from using the boys’ restroom. It didn’t take long before B.H. began showing significant psychological distress and his mom asked NCLR for help. NCLR worked with the school district to safeguard B.H.’s right to learn in a safe and welcoming...
Jane Doe was an 11-year-old transgender girl in the Highland Local Schools. For the prior three years, the District refused to treat her as female for all purposes, causing her to be ostracized and leading to frequent bullying and humiliation by teachers, staff, and students. Following an investigation, the U.S. Department of Education concluded that the District is violating Title IX. But instead of trying to remedy that situation, the school district sued the federal government, alleging the...
On April 8, 2022, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law SB 184. The law directly targets transgender adolescents and their families by imposing criminal penalties on any individual, including parents and healthcare providers, who facilitate or provide essential medical care to transgender adolescents for the treatment of gender dysphoria. NCLR, SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center), Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, along with co-counsel Lightfoot,...
This groundbreaking publication is the first ever to thoroughly address the complete integration of transgender student athletes within high school and collegiate athletic programs. It provides comprehensive model policies and a framework for athletic leaders to ensure equal access to school athletics for transgender students. Download PDF
A pioneering new report authored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project urges group care facilities to reassess their treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming youth and to adopt policies and practices that provide these youth with appropriate, fair and equal care. The report is the first to provide comprehensive guidance about the treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming youth in group care facilities,—including detention centers,...
“All 50” is a universal standard model in policy and education for transgender inclusion in K-12 sport and activity associations for all 50 states. It will be based on this single principle—transgender high school students athletes will compete in the gender in which they identify and have a positive sport experience. Download PDF
A Time Of Reflection The start of a New Year is a always a time for reflection, and in 2012, all of us at NCLR are looking back on how far we’ve come as the organization celebrates a major milestone—turning 35! Every bit of what NCLR has become over the last 35 years is reflected in you—the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender women and men who have stood beside us, challenging injustices by standing up for what’s right, and changing the legal and political landscape for every member of our...
Without traditional support systems in place, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender elders end up relying on nursing homes or other institutions providing long-term care. Today, the National Senior Citizens Law Center—along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE)—released a report showing that LGBTQ elders are often not safe in these...
Two years ago today, on September 20, 2011, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was officially repealed. The discriminatory and stigmatizing 1994 policy that barred lesbian, gay, and bisexual servicemembers from serving openly in the military has had a damaging impact on the strength of the armed forces during one of the most dangerous military times in a generation. As a result of DADT, more than 13,500 women and men were discharged from the military because of their sexual...
Today, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 460, which clarifies that insurance coverage of fertility treatments must be offered and provided equally to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender prospective parents, who continue to face discrimination in receiving equal coverage for these services. Even though California law prohibits discrimination in insurance generally, same-sex couples, transgender prospective parents, and single prospective parents in California continue to...
“We are who we are, and there’s very little we can do to change our core. If we’re asked to change, there will be a chasm so deep inside of us that it will threaten our very life.” –Jodie Patterson, mother of transgender child The suicide last week of 17-year-old transgender girl Leelah Alcorn was a soul-crushing reminder of how our society is failing our transgender youth. Leelah’s parents rejected who she was and subjected her to conversion therapy, apparently believing the...
On January 1, for the first time in history, transgender Americans will be able to openly enlist in our nation’s military. This is an incredible moment, and one we can all celebrate. We know that many transgender Americans have been planning and preparing for over a year for this day. And many others will now begin considering this as a real option for the very first time. The military has put considerable time into preparing for this day, and has developed guidelines for those charged with...
In May 2016, Texas, joined by Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin, filed a federal lawsuit challenging guidance issued by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice recognizing that schools must be safe, respectful and nurturing environments for all students, including transgender students. The states filed a motion that sought to block implementation of the guidance and preserve their ability to discriminate against a...
Nicole Wittmer filed a lawsuit against Phillips 66 Company, alleging that the company refused to hire her for a job because she is transgender. A federal district court in Texas ruled that Title VII, a federal law that prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace, protects transgender workers, but that Wittmer had not offered sufficient evidence that her transgender status was the reason she was not hired. Wittmer appealed. In 2018, NCLR, along with the ACLU, GLBTQ Legal Advocates &...
On September 14, 2021, Equality California, NCLR, and Lambda Legal filed an amicus letter on behalf of a coalition of state, local, and national nonprofit groups urging the California Supreme Court to review Taking Offense v. State of California, an appellate decision invalidating a non-discrimination statute requiring equal treatment of LGBTQ residents of long-term care facilities. Taking Offense involves a challenge to a provision of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Long-Term...
We are thrilled to help sponsor this year’s San Francisco Transgender Film Festival! SFTFF screens films that promote the visibility of transgender and gender variant people and challenge the mainstream media’s negative stereotypes of our communities. They provide opportunities for transgender and gender variant media artists, build community through our film and performance events, and engage our audiences in cross-community dialogue. For more information on the programs and tickets,...
Moderated by: Imani Rupert-Gordon, NCLR Executive DirectorShannon Minter, NCLR Legal DirectorSpecial Guests: Blaire McIntyre, Plaintiff, McIntyre v. WhitmanNicolas Talbott, Plaintiff, Stockman v. TrumpJennifer L. Levi, Esq., GLTBQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) Transgender Rights Project Director Join Legal Director of NCLR Shannon Minter, Transgender Rights Project Director of GLAD Jennifer Levi, and plaintiffs Nicolas Talbott and Blaire McIntyre as they discuss the impacts of...
Learn about the federal cases that recognize that discrimination on the basis of gender non-conformity and/or transgender status is a form of discrimination on the basis of sex. Open PDF
The first comprehensive book on the transgender civil rights movement, by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter, Editors. Read more about the book and order online.
The purpose of this brief is to support the efforts of California child welfare professionals to promote the safety, permanency, and well-being of transgender and gender nonconforming children in foster care. Download
NCLR and GLAD are outraged by Donald Trump’s tweets threatening to ban transgender people from military service. We are exploring legal options and appreciate the chance to have one of our attorneys or legal assistants reach out directly to learn more about your situation. If you are or could be affected by a change in military policy, please complete the form below. All information provided will be kept completely confidential within NCLR and GLAD. Thank you for your service, and thank you...
NCLR received support from the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center (PRC) to develop a model policy for confinement facilities that house transgender, gender nonconforming and intersex (TGNCI) youth – a population that experiences high rates of mistreatment and victimization in secure settings. NCLR and the Center for Children’s Law and Policy collaborated with a diverse group of youth justice stakeholders, including advocates for TGNCI youth, formerly incarcerated young...
NCLR collaborated with the National Juvenile Defender Center to create this tool for juvenile defenders who represent transgender, gender nonconforming or intersex (TGNCI) youth. The checklist identifies policies and procedures necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of TGNCI youth in detention and correctional facilities, as well as other types of secure and nonsecure facilities. Juvenile Facilities Checklist for Defenders
From Kate: Full Speed Ahead Dear Friend of NCLR, Could you slow things down just a little bit? In just the past few months, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals heard our landmark Utah marriage equality case, we continue our work to bring marriage equality to Idaho, Florida, Tennessee, and Wyoming, we’re working in states across the country to protect LGBTQ youth from the dangers of anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy, we helped defeat an effort to repeal California’s new law protecting transgender...
NCLR and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) represent the plaintiffs in two major lawsuits challenging President Trump’s directive to reinstate a ban on transgender people serving in the military. The suits, Doe v. Trump and Stockman v. Trump, were filed on behalf of transgender service members with decades of combined military service. In June 2016, after comprehensive review of the issue by military experts and others, the Department of Defense announced that transgender...
know your rights what you can do file a complaint Who Can Help More Resources Every Student Deserves to Be Safe and Supported at School School should be a place where every student is safe to learn, participate in extracurricular activities, and have fun with friends, classmates, and teammates. But students who are transgender, nonbinary, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or intersex still face discrimination, bullying, and harassment at school because of who they are. If you are a student who is...
February 2020 Client Spotlight: Remembering Kyler Prescott Anyone who met Kyler Prescott knew that he was special. A gifted artist, pianist and poet, Kyler expressed his creativity through every aspect of his life. He worked hard perfecting his passions and loved to spend any additional free time advocating for animal justice and LGBTQ rights.Kyler Prescott came out as transgender at age 13 and in May 2015, after enduring transphobic bullying and discrimination by peers and others, the Vista,...
NCLR has been on a tear the past several weeks. Each week, we’ve reported a great new success—our win for high school student Dynasty Young in Indiana, our federal court victory in Pennsylvania for surviving same-sex spouse Jennifer Tobits, our historic partnership with the Department of Justice on behalf of a transgender student in Arcadia, CA, and this week the signing of historic legislation protecting transgender students in California. Make no mistake: your support made each of these...
As an organization that litigates cases to protect equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender(LGBT) people, we do not take lightly a decision to oppose judicial nominees. The records of these two individuals, however, compel us to take this position. We believe the unvarnished animus towards LGBTQ people exhibited by Mr. Bush and Mr. Schiff render them unfit to serve as federal judges. Click here to read the full text of our letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary....
Anyone who met Kyler Prescott knew that he was special. A gifted artist, pianist, and poet, Kyler expressed his creativity through every aspect of his life. He worked hard perfecting his passions and loved to spend any additional free time advocating for animal justice and LGBTQ rights. Kyler Prescott came out as transgender at age 13 and in May 2015, after enduring transphobic bullying and discrimination by peers and others, the Vista, CA teenager died by suicide. He was only 14 years old. A...
I remember where I was when then President-elect Biden was the first to mention gay and transgender people in his Presidential victory address. My wife and I looked at each other in disbelief. It was a bold way to show us that we matter. Yesterday, we learned that this wasn’t an empty promise, when on his very first day in office, one of President Biden’s first executive orders was to apply all federal sex discrimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity. This...
In 2020, I began my first year as a law student at UC Davis, moving from my home state of Utah to Northern California. After arriving in Davis I knew I wanted to continue working on behalf of LGBTQ people as I had done in the past as part of the close-knit queer community in Salt Lake City, but I wasn’t sure where to start. Beginning college in a new city, I didn’t have any friends or connections, and the COVID-19 pandemic made it challenging to get involved and meet new people in...
Over the past year, we have seen more than 475 anti-LGBTQ laws introduced in dozens of states all across the country. From restricting healthcare for transgender youth to trying to erase LGBTQ people from public education and banning trans kids from playing sports in their schools, the non-stop wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation has never been more intense than it is right now. Included in the list of discriminatory and unjust laws we are seeing pass in states like Tennessee and...
Protecting LGBTQ people’s family relationships has been a core aspect of NCLR’s work since our founding in 1977. From marriage equality to protecting unmarried partners to the ability to have and raise children to establishing protections for transgender parents and transgender children, NCLR has been at the forefront of advancing the rights of LGBTQ people and their families for decades.
Although we have made great strides in protecting the rights of LGBTQ people and their families, LGBTQ parents continue to face significant discrimination. Transgender parents in particular still lose custody of their children at alarming rates simply because of their gender. Through legislation and impact litigation, NCLR works to ensure that LGBTQ parents and their children are fully recognized as families under the law, including low-income parents using low-cost assisted reproduction, both...
NCLR represented a transgender middle-school student in the Arcadia Unified School District who was being discriminated against because he is transgender. Although he lived as male and obtained a court-ordered name change, the school district still required that he use the nurse’s office for restroom access and to change in and out of his gym clothes. This arrangement caused him to miss a significant amount of class time. Sometimes his peers would tease him for taking so long to travel...
LGBT civil rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s sweeping anti-LGBT law, HB 2. The plaintiffs allege that through HB 2, North Carolina sends a purposeful message that LGBT people are second-class citizens who are undeserving of the privacy, respect, and protections afforded others in the state. The trial court granted the plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction and halted enforcement of HB 2. On October 25, 2016, NCLR filed an amicus brief before the Court of Appeal...
On April 13, 2015, NCLR, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Altshuler Berzon LLP, and Delaney, Robb & Ruvin filed a lawsuit against Tower Loan for firing an employee because he is transgender. Tristan Broussard was hired as a Manager Trainee in Tower Loan’s Lake Charles Branch. During his first week on the job, he was called into a back office and instructed by a Company Vice President to sign a document stating that his “preference to act and dress as male” was not...
NCLR and Joshua Langdon represented three transgender youth and their families in a lawsuit against Warren County Judge Joseph Kirby. The complaint alleged that Judge Kirby violated the United States Constitution by denying name changes to transgender youth based on his biases about transgender people. Judge Kirby moved to dismiss the case. On October 29, 2018, the District Court held that Judge Kirby could not be sued for exercising his judicial discretion in denying name changes to...
Meghan Murphy repeatedly referred to a transgender woman using male pronouns while posting on Twitter. She was informed by Twitter that this activity violated the company’s hateful conduct rules, but Murphy persisted, resulting in Twitter permanently suspending her account. Murphy sued Twitter in February 2019 alleging that the company violated the terms of their user agreement by suspending her account. The trial court dismissed her case, finding that Twitter had the authority to permanently...
Work for LGBTQ equality is inextricably linked to the fight for Racial Justice. And right now, that work could not be more urgent. NCLR invites you to attend impactful virtual town hall discussions with executive director Imani Rupert-Gordon and others on working for racial justice in and beyond the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ+ Community Dismantling White Supremacy – June 9, 2020 Co-hosted by NCLR. GLBT Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), GLSEN, National...
Created by NCLR, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, and the Transgender Law Center, Beyond the Binary is a comprehensive tool kit designed to help students, school staff, and other community activists who want to address harassment and discrimination against transgender and other gender non-conforming students. Download PDF
Over the last few years, a coordinated national effort to improve the treatment of LGBTQ youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems situation has emerged through the hard work of hundreds of advocates from around the country. This article describes some of their successes in using the legal rights of LGBTQ youth to create effective nondiscrimination policies, best practices guidelines, and other resources to support LGBTQ youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. A...
This document provides a summary and discussion of relevant Florida law for attorneys who are representing LGBTQ parents in custody and visitation cases in Florida. Open PDF
This publication provides a summary and discussion of relevant Texas law for attorneys who are representing LGBTQ parents in cases involving parentage, custody, or visitation in Texas. Download PDF
This publication provides a summary and discussion of relevant Wisconsin law for attorneys who are representing LGBTQ parents in custody and visitation cases in Wisconsin. Download PDF
This publication explores many pressing issues—such as health care, housing and property rights—of relevance to the LGBTQ older adult community. View publication
This pioneering new guide includes comprehensive information about your rights and the services that are available to you as you navigate the system of public and social benefits in California. Download PDF
This comprehensive practice guide, written by NCLR Youth Project Director Shannan Wilber for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, provides juvenile justice agencies the tools to meet their obligation to ensure the safety and well-being of LGBTQ youth in their care. The guide covers a broad range of topics, including nondiscrimination policies, staff training, talking with LGBTQ youth about sexuality and gender, and making individualized classification and housing decisions. Download
You may have heard of situations in which teachers or other professionals make child abuse reports against parents who affirm their gender-expansive child. Although there have been a few cases where child protective services fully investigates these allegations, those cases are not common. Understandably, the thought of responding to child abuse allegations can be scary and overwhelming. Although formal investigations are rare, there are concrete preventive steps you can take to be prepared in...
The Family Acceptance Project of San Francisco State University collaborated with Proyecto Poderoso, a joint project of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and California Rural Legal Assistance, and Radio Bilingüe to develop a Spanish-language radio soap opera to reach the Latino community with stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender acceptance. The three-part series—called “Bienvenidos a Casa” or “Welcome Home”—is airing through March 31, 2011 on Radio Bilingüe Stations across...
The President’s announcement that he supports marriage equality has encouraged other high- profile leaders and organizations to express their support for marriage equality, most notably the NAACP, which decided in a near-unanimous vote to pass a resolution officially supporting marriage equality. The President also adds his voice to a growing chorus of people of faith who embrace equality not in spite of their religious beliefs, but because of them. It would be tempting to see this moment as...
By Ryan Kendall NCLR Guest Columnist I was at home, deep into studying for my fall-semester class load at Columbia University in New York City, when I got the news that California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1172 into law, protecting young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth from the same type of psychological abuse that I endured at the hands of mental health professionals who tried to change my sexual orientation. It was a powerful thing to know that we had finally done...
Just yesterday, you heard from us about the groundbreaking settlement announced by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education in our case to win equal access and protections for young transgender people. Last night, The New York Times published an editorial celebrating this agreement, calling on every school district in America to adopt the guidelines announced in this agreement. The editorial is a clarion call, and a vindication of our important work. I am truly...
September 30th marked the 37th anniversary of the enactment of the Hyde Amendment, the federal provision that bans Medicaid coverage for abortion-related healthcare. The Hyde Amendment has been one of the most devastating attacks on the ability for low-income families to access healthcare. Since the Amendment passed, people relying on Medicaid for health coverage have effectively been prevented from accessing crucially important abortion-related care. This tragic anniversary comes at the end...
When I joined the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) as its Major Gifts Officer in February, I felt like I finally found my home—an organization that not only embraces every part of me as a Blacklesbian, but also is devoted to protecting every member of the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Not leaving anyone behind in its pursuit of equality and justice is ingrained into all aspects of its work, which has transformed the nation’s legal and political landscape...
A groundbreaking new report released by Services and Advocacy Group for LGBTQ Elders (SAGE) is giving us a better understanding of the needs and concerns of this community. The new report, Out and Visible: The Experiences and Attitudes of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Older Adults, Ages, 45-75, is a uniquely comprehensive qualitative study based on a national survey of more than 1,800 LGBTQ older adults that measures the challenges this community continues to face. The report...
Here we are again. Surreptitiously gained footage targeting the most well-known name in access to reproductive healthcare – yes, Planned Parenthood. I know that many of us are tempted simply to sigh and shake our heads in exasperation, but instead we must remain more vigilant than ever about keeping their clinics—often the only resource for reproductive health care for low-income women and transgender people in many parts of the country–open. First and foremost, we must write or call our...
Today, NCLR joins more than 150 other LGBTQ Latinx groups and allies reaffirming their commitment to ending violence against marginalized communities following the June 12, 2016 shooting at an Orlando, Florida LGBTQ bar that left 49 people dead and more than 50 seriously injured. Statement We, the undersigned, a coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Latinx organizations and allies make the following statement in the spirit of education and with the purpose of...
I’ve been waiting 7 months to say this: I work at NCLR! Though I didn’t know what my first message to you would look like, I knew no matter what, I would end it the same way: let’s get to work. When we announced in December that I would be starting in this role, we had no idea that it would be in the midst of a global health pandemic. In an effort to keep everyone as safe as possible during this public health emergency, NCLR is following the guidance of the Centers for...
Good evening and thank you for spending tonight with us. My name is Imani Rupert-Gordon, my pronouns are she/her/hers and I am honored to be the new executive director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. I’m thrilled to be here. And I want to acknowledge that my heart is in Minneapolis right now, so I want to start with a message to the folks who are a part of the uprising that has spent the last several days demanding justice for George Floyd and for countless black citizens...
Protecting families has been a core part of our work at the National Center for Lesbian Rights since we started in 1977. We envision a world where all families — no matter how they are formed — are given equal dignity and respect. Even though we have made a lot of progress over the last 45 years, LGBTQ families are still separated in every state because of discrimination and lack of legal recognition of our family relationships. Last year, NCLR’s client, LaNesha Matthews, was removed from her...
Today marks the five-year anniversary of the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL that took the lives of 49 mostly Black and Brown LGBTQ people who were out enjoying their night in what they considered a safe space. As a native Orlandoan, and someone who started going to Pulse when they first opened in 2004, I will never forget the feeling of shock, grief, and anger that coursed through my body when I first saw the news about the horrendous loss of life in a place I once...
As we celebrate Pride Month and the one-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, we must continue to fight for LGBTQ equality. When we reflect on the Bostock decision and its incredible impact on our community, we must also remember the tough work that still remains to ensure...
In 2021, NCLR held a series of conversations about pressing issues in the LGBTQ movement with staff talking about what NCLR is doing to respond and what we see in the future. You can find out about those series of discussions (Forgotten LGBTQ Youth, 1st Amendment Rights vs. Anti-Discrimination, and The Modern Family) and watch full recordings of the conversations below. Forgotten LGBTQ YouthFirst Amendment Rights vs. Anti-DiscriminationModern Family PAST IN CONVERSATION DISCUSSIONS Forgotten...
Janine Grgurina (she/her) – Legal Assistant A UC Santa Cruz alumni, Janine Grgurgina comes to us after running a voter registration campaign and working on behalf of affordable housing. She is interested in advocating for transgender healthcare and reproductive justice and is excited to be working for NCLR because of our positive impact on the LGBTQ community. Where do you currently reside? Noe Valley, San Francisco What is your educational background?Bachelor of Arts in Sociology...
Despite her spotless employment record, Krystal Etsitty, a transgender woman, was fired from her job as a public bus driver by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), solely because the UTA feared that members of the public might be offended by Etsitty’s transgender identity. A federal district court in Utah dismissed Etsitty’s case, holding that federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination do not protect transgender people. Etsitty appealed this decision to the Tenth Circuit Court of...
At the age of 74, Denee Mallon never set out to make history, only for the chance to live authentically, as who she truly is. But thanks to her determination, she successfully challenged Medicare’s ban on providing sex affirming surgeries in a groundbreaking case brought by NCLR and legal partners. After winning the case and obtaining the gender-affirming surgery she waited so long to have, Denee remarked “I feel congruent, like I’m finally one complete human being where my...
In 2020, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law HB 500 – the so-called “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” – making Idaho the first state to pass a law banning transgender athletes from participating in sports. The law would bar women and girls who are transgender, and many who are intersex, from taking part in school sports consistent with their gender identity. It would also institute a “dispute” process, which would require female athletes to verify their biological sex through an...
This panel will be moderated by Steve Buckley, Senior Writer for The Athletic. Panelists include Author, Activist and Coach, Joanna Lohman; Amy Whelan, Senior Staff Attorney at NCLR; and Angela Hucles Mangano, Founding Member of Angel City FC. Join us for a conversation about LGBTQ people and sports from the perspectives of athletes, coaches, advocates and fans.Check out Joanna Lohman’s new book, Raising Tomorrow’s Champions, an extraordinary parenting and life lessons book as told...
In 2021, NCLR held a series of conversations about pressing issues in the LGBTQ movement with staff talking about what NCLR is doing to respond and what we see in the future. You can find out about those series of discussions (Forgotten LGBTQ Youth, 1st Amendment Rights vs. Anti-Discrimination, and The Modern Family) and watch full recordings of the conversations below. PAST IN CONVERSATION DISCUSSIONS Forgotten LGBTQ Youth Tuesday, October 2612 pm PT/3 pm ET NCLR’s Shannon Minter, Amy...
If you have questions, updates, edits, or suggestions for the resource guide, please let us know Covid-19 Resource Pages LGBTQ-Specific Equality Federation Centerlink NCTE National LGBT Cancer Network LGBTQ Allyship (Washington State) Oasis Legal Services (Bay Area/California) Verified LGBTQ+ Affirming and Immigrant Friendly Resources Providing Services During COVID-19 (Asylum Connect) SF Bay Area LGBTQ Leather Kink Community Resources San Francisco Bay Area Kink Community...
So Much to Celebrate Dear Friend of NCLR, It’s been a busy—and exciting—summer in our movement, which took a significant leap forward last week with the demise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Last Tuesday’s historic repeal doesn’t just mark the end of the 18-year-old policy, it signals a new era in which government policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity are rightly seen as shameful and outmoded. So much blood, sweat, and tears have gone into the...
We’ve Reached the Tipping Point, But Not the Finish Line Dear Friend of NCLR, In my almost 18 years at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen political changes, cultural shifts, and countless stories about the lives of our bright and vibrant community, but it’s fair to say that we are now in utterly uncharted territory. In the past few months, we have seen a President who supports the full range of what it means for us to be embraced as fully equal, a Congress with...
Amy Whelan has been a Senior Staff Attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) since 2011 and works on NCLR’s full range of litigation, policy, and public education work. Amy litigates complex civil cases around the country regarding marriage equality, employment discrimination, Title IX, family law, access to healthcare, prisoners’ civil rights, the First Amendment, and other constitutional matters. Amy represented the mother of a transgender teenager who was subjected to severe...
Thirty years ago today, October 11 was named National Coming Out Day to mark the anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States. October is LGBTQ History Month and Filipino American History Month as well. Also 30 years ago today, I was born in Texas as the youngest of three siblings to the parents of Filipino immigrants. Each year, this time feels bittersweet to me. As I celebrate each of these identities, I remember how central my Filipino-American...
NCLR received support from the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center (PRC) to develop a model policy for confinement facilities that house transgender, gender nonconforming and intersex (TGNCI) youth – a population that experiences high rates of mistreatment and victimization in secure settings. NCLR and the Center for Children’s Law and Policy collaborated with a diverse group of youth justice stakeholders, including advocates for TGNCI youth, formerly incarcerated young...
We call on our elected leaders to stand up for equal access to health care for transgender youth and adults. The medical community has stated clearly and forcefully that this health care is safe, essential and lifesaving and, yet, some politicians are intent on taking it away. This has to stop. The state bans, the federal funding restrictions, the false “child abuse” investigations – all of it must stop. Let’s be clear: Healthcare decisions should be made by the patients and their...
Two Alabama families and Alabama medical providers Dr. Morissa Ladinsky and Dr. Hussein Abdul-Latif have filed suit in federal court following Governor Kay Ivey’s signing of SB 184. The plaintiffs are represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign with King & Spalding LLP and Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC Today civil and LGBTQ legal rights advocates SPLC, GLAD, NCLR, and HRC,...
Report is the first to address transgender student athletes, provides comprehensive model policies (San Francisco, CA, October 04, 2010)—A groundbreaking report sponsored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and It Takes A Team!, an Initiative of the Women’s Sports Foundation, is urging high school and college athletic associations across the country to adopt standard policies to provide transgender student athletes fair and equal opportunity to participate on athletic teams. The...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 6, 2020 CONTACTS:Christopher Vasquez, NCLR Communications Director415.365.1337 | cvasquez@nclrights.org TUCSON, AZ – Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), along with co-counsel King & Spalding LLP and Perkins Coie LLP, filed a class-action lawsuit challenging Arizona Medicaid’s categorical exclusion for surgical treatment...
By Dan Torres, Esq. Proyecto Poderoso Project Manager The discussion about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender acceptance often begins with conversations with those closest to us—our families. But in some households, cultural barriers create obstacles that can seem too big to overcome, making it nearly impossible for some LGBTQ people to share with their families who they truly are and the daily struggles they face as members of the LGBTQ community. In many Latino households, cultural...
No child should ever be separated from her mother just because of her mother’s sexual orientation, but this continues to happen to families around the world. Decades of social science research have shown that a parent’s sexual orientation has absolutely no effect on their ability to be a good parent. But courts still rely on discredited notions that being raised by a lesbian mother is harmful for children. On May 31, 2004, a Chilean Court ordered Karen Atala to give up custody of her three...
It’s been an incredible few weeks. President Obama made history last month when he announced his plan to bring humanity and decency to our nation’s immigration policy, and underscored the urgency of coming together to bring major reform now. The President’s speech outlined his vision for a clear path toward citizenship that includes a streamlined pathway for DREAMers, those young women and men who came to America as children and know only this country as their home. They have waited for the...
Today, March 25, 2014, the Supreme Court will hear argument in yet another case that could dramatically affect LGBTQ people, but this time it’s not about marriage equality. In Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a for-profit business is challenging its obligation under the Affordable Care Act to provide employees with access to birth control. If accepted by the Court, the arguments Hobby Lobby is advancing may pose a serious threat to anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people....
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This month is a reminder that through a combination of stigma and myths, sexual assault in the LGBTQ community is often rendered invisible or dismissed outright, despite CDC statistics that show the sexual assault rate for LGBTQ individuals is comparable or higher than the sexual assault rate for heterosexual individuals. Approximately 1 in 8 lesbian women and nearly half of bisexual women experience rape in their lifetime, and statistics likely...
April is National STD Awareness Month! STD, short for “sexually transmitted disease,” actually refers to a whole spectrum of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Unfortunately, there are quite a few myths about STDs, especially concerning how vulnerable the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) community is to contracting them. Three of the most dangerous myths are addressed below: Myth #1: Only gay men get HIV/AIDS. While HIV/AIDS has historically been more prevalent...
The news that Michael Sam had been drafted by the St. Louis Rams late on Saturday, becoming the first openly gay athlete in the NFL, was met with two very different reactions in my house. While I was overcome with pride and emotion at this historic moment, my two sixteen-year-old daughters—one a rock climber and one a water polo player—simply yelled, “Yes!” when they heard, and moved on to the rest of their day. Our two very different reactions are possibly the most perfect metaphor for the...
Ever since NCLR’s founding, we have been at the forefront of some of the most important legal cases in the history of the LGBTQ movement, from winning the freedom to marry in California, to securing critical protections for LGBTQ parents in courts around the country, and all the way to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. But no year in our history has ever been quite like this one. The Supreme Court’s decision last summer striking down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which...
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”). As initially passed, the Act aimed at targeted and addressing crime that disproportionately impacted women by providing federal money for investigation and prosecution of these violent crimes and imposing automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted. In the twenty years since its passage, VAWA’s focus has expanded to capture a broader and more comprehensive segment of violence that...
Today, on National Coming Out Day, countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people around the world will find the courage, through one another, to tell the world who they really are. But this day is more than a just a celebration of the freedom to be ourselves. It commemorates the 1987 National March on Washington, a grass roots protest against the Supreme Court decision in Bowers v. Hardwick upholding criminal sodomy laws, and the Reagan administration’s refusal to...
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to voting rights by allowing Texas to enforce one of the most restrictive voter identification laws in the country. The new law will not only subject Texas voters to a highly restrictive identification process, but it will also have a devastating impact on the right to vote for many nationalized immigrants, people of color, and thousands of young voters. The law, passed in 2011, requires voters to present one of seven potential forms of...
The suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn has prompted widespread media attention, including a focus on her description of how being sent to conversion therapy increased her sense of isolation and rejection. Now more than ever before, it is clear that there is an urgent need for more public discussion and education around the harms caused by conversion therapy. But some aspects of the recent conversations have been troubling. I’ve spent the last several years working with survivors of...
Today, America is closer to being a country that walks the talk of “Equal Justice Under Law.” After last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in our Tennessee marriage case (one of four cases before the Court), striking down discriminatory state marriage laws and affirming our freedom to marry, millions of families are more equal and secure. Today, in every corner of this nation, every lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender person can take a deep breath and walk a little taller. The ground has...
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent marriage equality ruling has brought the freedom to marry to the entire country, recognizing the equal dignity of our families. However, there is a lot more we need to do to achieve true family equality that fully respects the rights of LGBTQ parents and their children. Let me share the story of Marisol and her spouse, Elena (names have been changed to protect their family). They decided to have a child and asked one of Marisol’s friends to be their sperm donor....
NCLR has written a new practice guide for the Annie E. Casey Foundation entitled “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth in the Juvenile Justice System,” which provides juvenile justice agencies the tools they need to ensure the safety and well-being of LGBTQ youth in their care. This groundbreaking publication documents the vulnerability of LGBTQ youth in our communities and in juvenile justice systems. Social stigma, family rejection, and discrimination subject LGBTQ youth to increased...
Over the past holiday weekend, as many of us relaxed with our families and celebrated the beginning of a new year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided the homes of Central American refugees in Texas, Georgia and North Carolina and arrested 121 people, many of them mothers with young children. Sadly, there is nothing new about the ICE raids. They are a component of the Obama administration’s enforcement policy that targets these refugees who arrived in the United States in...
Today the nation commemorates the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Today, as this fundamental right faces unprecedented attacks, it is time that we reclaim the promise of Roefor this and future generations. Roe held that one of the most personal and intimate decisions one can make — whether and when to bear a child — belongs to the individual. While the precise contours of the right and the...
NCLR is proud to collaborate with Family Builders and the Center for the Study of Social Policy on getR.E.A.L. California–an initiative aimed at promoting the healthy sexual and identity development of all children involved with the California child welfare system. The initiative partners have produced a new issue brief aimed at helping child welfare professionals support and affirm transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) children in foster care. As numerous other state legislatures...
In 2014, President Obama issued an Executive Order prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people by entities that contract with or receive grants from the federal government. This was an important milestone in expanding essential job protections for our community, and it is now under serious threat. Sweeping language in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017 (NDAA) would nullify that Executive Order and authorize taxpayer-funded discrimination in each and...
On May 23rd, President Trump released his first full federal budget proposal. While many knew it would be bad, nothing could have prepared us for this. If enacted, this budget would be devastating. It slashes funding for vital programs and services that help struggling individuals and families afford the basics- food, housing, heating, education, and healthcare. At the same time, the budget seeks an additional $54 billion for the defense department and gives corporations and the wealthy...
Two weeks ago, our hearts sank here at NCLR as we heard the news that the Atlanta community had been attacked by a terrorist who murdered eight individuals – including six Asian women. While we may not have all the details about the motives of the attacker, it is clear that he specifically targeted Asian-owned and operated businesses in a city with a less than 5% Asian population. What is also clear is that anti-Asian violence has dramatically increased in the last year, incited in large...
We’ve had two more additions to the NCLR team recently! Help us welcome our new Staff Attorney, KJ Popkin, and our Director of People, Culture, and Equity, Shauna Madison! KJ Popkin (they/them) – Staff Attorney KJ Popkin comes to us with a breadth of experience working on social justice issue cases ranging from police brutality to abortion bans. They were led to NCLR because they believe it is “crucial to go where the need is greatest,” and are motivated to work on behalf of...
We invite you to join NCLR today as we honor the 49 lives lost – and the countless others forever changed – at the tragedy at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL on June 12, 2016. On the anniversary of that horrific night when so many of our community were murdered in a senseless act of gun violence, we not only remember those taken from us, we also join those who pledge to Honor Them With Action. As a young queer Latino and Orlando native who frequently visited Pulse, the nightmare of that...
Our Proud History In 1977, a brave and determined woman, fresh out of law school and eager to make a difference, decided to put her knowledge to good use. As a legal scholar, Donna Hitchens saw the courtroom as a way to change the world. As a lesbian, she had experienced frustrations and fears—both personal and professional—and didn’t want others to suffer the same. As a future parent, she knew she would face even more challenges ahead. The National Center for Lesbian Rights was born. Each...
NCLR’s Sports Project aims to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender players, coaches, and administrators receive fair and equal treatment—free of discrimination. Founded in 2001, the Sports Project has litigated cases on behalf of LGBTQ athletes and coaches, advised schools and athletic associations, and convened key coalitions to combat homophobia and transphobia in sports. NCLR co-founded and participates in a coalition of LGBTQ sports leaders from across the country that works...
LGBTQ people face significant barriers to accessing health care, including widespread discrimination in healthcare settings. NCLR engages in a wide range of advocacy, including litigation, policy, and legislation, to improve access to and eradicate discrimination in health care, especially with respect to gender-affirming care for transgender people.
NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights) is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education. NCLR (located at 870 Market Street, SF CA 94102, Phone: 415-392-6257) encourages requests for financial and other information about its purpose, programs and activities that can be obtained by contacting it. NCLR has...
Judge Donna Hitchens There’s one thing that’s sure about the Honorable Donna Hitchens’ legacy: Through her commitment to justice, she has changed the lives of thousands of people, not only while serving on the San Francisco County Superior Court bench, but as the founder of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, where her vision of fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality continues to change the nation’s legal landscape. After 20 years, Judge Hitchens—who developed a...
Members of NCLR’s Impact Club understand how essential a continued stream of support is to our work. Work that protects families, transgender youth, immigrants and those living in poverty. With your ongoing and monthly support, YOU make this possible.
This year brought our country a new presidency, and, as a national legal organization that is committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and education, NCLR pledges to work with the Biden-Harris Administration and the 117th Congress to advance equality for LGBTQ+ people. NCLR’s 2021 Federal Policy Agenda works cross the full spectrum of issues that affect our diverse...
PRINT VERSION (PDF) MPOX (also known as monkeypox) is a rare illness that began spreading in the United States starting in Spring 2022. While MPOX has to date primarily been spreading through the gay and bisexual male, men who have sex with men (MSM), and transgender communities, it is important to remember that anyone can still contract MPOX. To keep yourself & the community safe, it is good to recognize the signs and symptoms of MPOX and how to avoid it. How it Spreads According to the...
In June 2005, love, patience, and persistence, combined with a visionary judge and a little help from Dr. Phil, led to an historic settlement agreement between NCLR client Michael Kantaras and his former wife. Michael, a transsexual father, has been fighting for almost seven years to retain his parental rights to his two children, aged 16 and 13. This case first made national and international news in 2002, when Court TV aired the entire three week dissolution and custody trial....
NCLR assisted S., a transgender father in Chicago. S. has lived his entire adult life as a male and has undergone medical treatment for sex-reassignment. He also had his birth certificate changed to reflect his male gender. S. married in 1985. He and his wife had a child together in 1992 through alternative insemination. When S. filed for divorce in 1998, his wife counter-petitioned to have their marriage declared void and to terminate S.’s parental rights. All three therapists who...
NCLR represented Susan Stanton, who was threatened with termination from her longtime position as the City Manager for the City of Largo, Florida after her employer learned that she is transgender and will be undergoing sex reassignment. Despite Stanton’s 17 years of dedicated service to the City of Largo, the City Commission voted on February 28, 2007 to begin the legal process of firing Stanton, who informed the Commission that she is transgender after learning that a local newspaper...
Irma is a Mexican transgender woman who has suffered a lifetime of loss, violence, and abuse. Irma is the eighth of ten children. From a very young age, Irma understood herself to be female. She socialized with girls and believed she would grow up to be a woman. She only started to doubt those beliefs when her family began to taunt her and physically abuse her. Her brothers wanted her to be macho and began to hit her to “toughen her up.” Throughout her life, Irma was targeted for...
Mariah L. sought coverage for transition-related healthcare as a 20-year-old transgender woman in foster care in New York City. Mariah’s doctors have all agreed that sex reassignment surgery is medically necessary for her. In New York, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has a duty to provide and pay for all necessary medical care and treatment for children placed in foster care, but ACS has refused to provide Mariah with the medical care that she needs. Mariah...
Jenniffer Spencer served a 10-year prison sentence for possession of a stolen car and a failed escape attempt that occurred when she was a teenager. While she was incarcerated in Idaho, Spencer, a transgender woman, made 75 requests for treatment for her gender identity disorder (GID), but the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) failed to provide her with any appropriate care. Spencer attempted suicide when she learned that prison doctors would not provide any treatment and eventually...
Y.G. is a transgender woman from Mexico who suffered severe physical and mental abuse from her family because of her gender identity. Growing up, her family insisted that she act more “masculine,” and she was physically abused when she refused. She went to the police, but they ignored her need for protection. In February 2007, Y.G. was badly beaten by gang members who left her bleeding from head wounds. Fearing for her life, she fled to the United States. In February 2009, she was...
Vanessa Adams is a transgender woman who was diagnosed by Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) medical professionals with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) in 2005 while she was incarcerated in a BOP prison. Over the next few years, she made at least 19 written requests asking for medical treatment for GID. The BOP denied all of her requests outright based on its so-called “freeze frame” policy in which treatment for any person with GID is kept frozen at the level provided at the time he or...
All students should be able to receive an education in an environment that is safe and inclusive. Unfortunately, many schools in the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota presented a frightening and harmful toxic environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. Many students in the district had been harassed every day by their peers because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression. NCLR joined the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),...
LaRon Charles, Jon Russ and Steven Apilado had been playing softball together in the San Francisco Gay Softball League for years. Their team had competed in the Gay Softball World Series organized by the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA), but had never finished better than fourth place. At the 2008 World Series in Seattle, the team made it all the way to the championship game, when they were shocked to learn that their eligibility to play was being challenged based on a...
Fallon Fox made history in 2013 when she came out as the first openly transgender mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. NCLR’s Sports Project helped her navigate that process, and also assisted Fallon with athletic licensing issues in Florida and California. Fallon, known in the cage as the “Queen of Swords,” is now licensed to fight in California. NCLR worked with the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) on a comprehensive policy regarding transgender fighters that can serve as a...
As outrageous as it is, today, people in many states can be fired from their jobs or denied services simply because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Without a federal law protecting LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination, it is essential that cities, counties, and towns have the power to pass anti-discrimination laws. Nashville passed such a law in 2011, only to have state lawmakers, working with a virulently anti-LGBTQ group, take it away. In June 2011, NCLR filed a lawsuit...
