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)
10:50 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)
Professor Meredith R. Miller, Assistant Professor of Law, Touro Law Center
