Free Symposium on Transgender Law at Touro Law Center in February

Touro Law Center’s Journal of Race, Gender and Ethnicity is holding a symposium, Transgender Law: Challenging the Boundaries of Law and Gender, on Friday, February 20, 2009 at the Touro Law Center in Central Islip, New York. I will be speaking, as will many other legal scholars. There is no fee to attend the program. To register, follow this link.


There are three sessions. The first is "Gender and Access to Justice," featuring speakers on immigration Law, Prop 8, and criminal law. The second is " Gender as Legal Boundary," and features speakers on sex-testing in sports, access to healthcare, and name/gender changes. The third is "Transgender Identity and Framing Transgender Equality," featuring speakers on GID reform, constitutional right to privacy, transitional discrimination, and disability, gender and race.

A transcript of the symposium will be published on the Journal’s website. The schedule is published below.

8:30 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

WELCOME REMARKS Dean Lawrence Raful, Touro Law Center9:20 a.m. – 10:40 a.m.

SESSION 1: GENDER AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Moderator: James G. Durham, Head of Public Services, Gould Law Library, Touro Law Center

• Immigration Law and the Transgender Client (Speaker: Victoria Neilson, Esq, Legal Director, Immigration Equality
• Eight - Hate or Too Late? Did California Transsexuals Survive the Proposition Eight Vote? (Speaker: Katrina Rose, Esq., Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, University of Iowa)
• Transgender Issues in Criminal Law: Finding a Place for Transgender Individuals in Prisons (Speaker: Benish Shah, Esq., Associate, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP)
  

10:40 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. BREAK

10:50 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. SESSION 2: GENDER AS LEGAL BOUNDARY
Moderator: Mik Kinkead, Transgender Services Coordinator, Long Island GLBT Services Network

• From Sex-Testing to the Stockholm Consensus: The Tenuous Lex Sportiva of the Transgender Athlete (Speaker: Professor Shayna Sigman, Associate Professor of Law, Touro Law Center)
• Transgender Access to Healthcare and the Role of Medicine in Transgender Civil Rights (Speaker: Michael D. Silverman, Esq., Executive Director, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund)
• Transgender Name Changes and Legal Adjudications of Gender (Speaker: Franklin Romeo, Esq., Staff Attorney, Sylvia Rivera Law Project)12:10 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

LUNCH1:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.

SESSION 3:TRANSGENDER IDENTITY AND FRAMING TRANSGENDER EQUALITY Moderator: David Kilmnick, PhD, MSW, Chief Executive Officer, Long Island GLBT Services Network

• The Debate over GID Reform: How Does it Play Out in the Courts? (Speaker: M. Dru Levasseur, Esq., Staff Attorney, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund)
• Rights to Gender Self-Determination as a Component of the Constitutional Right to Privacy (Speaker: Dr. Jillian T. Weiss, Esq., Professor of Law and Society, Ramapo College)
• Transitional Discrimination (Speaker: Professor Elizabeth Glazer, Associate Professor of Law, Hofstra Law School)
• Interlocking Systems of Oppression: Disability, Gender and Race in the Context of Transgender Legal Claims (Speaker: Kyle Kirkup, Candidate for Baccalaureate of Law and Senior Editor of Ottawa Law Review, University of Ottawa)
  

2:50 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. CLOSING REMARKS
Professor Meredith R. Miller, Assistant Professor of Law, Touro Law Center

Would It Kill You To Look Like A Man? Transgender Employees in Indiana

Judge Robert L. Miller, a Reagan appointee who sits on the federal district court for the Northern District of Indiana, has recently issued yet another curious decision in the case of Creed v. Family Express Corp. Amber Creed was fired from her job in 2005 because she is transgender. Judge Miller's first decision, in 2007, which I will call Creed I, was very curious indeed, creating a considerable amount of confusion about what precisely is protected under the federal employment discrimination law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His second decision, which came out a few weeks ago (Creed II, 2009 WL 35237) is even more hopelessly befuddled. Curiouser and curiouser!, cried Alice. These decisions are a case study of why the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act should include protection for both sexual orientation and gender identity, for it demonstrates that the current federal law of employment discrimination is a patchwork welter that creates confusion for both employees and employers.

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