SLDN at Lavender Law
It's September, so it must be time for Lavender Law!
For those of you who have never heard of it before, Lavender Law is the annual conference of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA). This year, our entire legal team (Sharra Greer, Kathi Westcott, Emily Hecht, and Aaron Tax) packed their bags and headed off to Chicago to share with the LGBT legal community all of the good work SLDN has been doing over the past year and to hear about the latest developments in the LGBT legal world (for Sen. McCain’s benefit -- LGBT means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender).
This year SLDN really expanded its presence at Lavender Law, participating in four of the nearly thirty break-out sessions at the confernce. This is due not only to the tremendous amount of political attention being focused on the issue of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but also because of the increasing amount of (groundbreaking) work the SLDN legal team has been doing in the impact of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the families of LGB service members. A growing number of states provide recognition of same-sex relationships; including laws which govern civil unions, marriage, domestic partnerships, health benefits and adoption. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” however, prohibits service personnel from taking advantage of those new opportunities because of the ban on open service and, as a result, a new area of law is beginning to emerge.
Kathi sat on a panel entitled “In the Crosshairs: the Military Family,” where she talked about the plight of gay military families and how “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” impacts -- emotionally, financially, and legally -- the lives of the partners and children of gay service members.
Sharra sat on two panels - one entitled “From FAIR (v. Rumsfeld) to Equal: The Top Five Things Law Students Can Do to Address the Discrimination Inherent in the Solomon Amendment,” and another entitled “LGBT Pro Bono in Private Practice.”
Aaron and Emily, along with SLDN friend and attorney, Bridget Wilson, participated in a mock trial entitled “Representing the Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine in a (Mock) Separation Action and Board Hearing.” Sharra, Kathi, and Bridget served as the judges, Emily served as the defense attorney, and Aaron served as prosecutor. Luckily, for the “service member” involved in the mock trail, he was retained. Its too bad all cases don't have such a happy ending!
From our collegues at Lavender Law we learned that LGBT service members are not alone in the struggles they face. Other members of the community face quite different, but equally heart-wrenching, problems.
For example, we learned that many LGBT foreign nationals seek asylum in the United States because they are prosecuted in their home countries because of their sexual orientation. In some countries, like Iran, people are even executed simply for being gay!
Unfortunately, foreign nationals who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, run into a road block in their asylum applications. They must figure out how to “prove” to the U.S. government that they are in fact gay. We heard the story of a client who went so far as to provide copies of tickets from the Cher concert he once attended -- I don’t recall if he made the cut!
We are already looking forward to next year, when we’ll again be able to meet and share ideas with attorneys at Lambda Legal, the Task Force, and other allied organizations. Maybe Secretary Gates and the new Attorney General will join us for some good times and information sharing!!
-Aaron TaxLabels: legal aid
-----09-17-07
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