As LGBTQ rights and freedoms flourish and face significant obstacles, Jennifer C. Pizer, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal and the nonprofit law organization, and historian Ellen Ann Andersen, “A Claim for Equality: LGBTQ+ He wrote “50 Years of Legal Milestones in History”.
This coffee table book opens Lambda Legal’s archives and celebrates half a century of advocacy. With a foreword by bestselling author Roxanne Gay, this book features extensive illustrations and details on dozens of landmark lawsuits that expanded civil rights for LGBTQ people in education, employment, marriage, health care, and housing. We highlight the case with historic photos. ,military service.
Photo courtesy of Lambda Legal
Cases include Doe v. SEPTA (1994), which strengthened privacy protections for individuals living with HIV/AIDS and established important medical confidentiality precedent, and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage across the United States. year).
Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which decriminalized consensual homosexual acts nationwide and overturned state sodomy laws; and Zarda v., which established workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He has also delved into cases such as the Altitude Express incident (2020). Prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
“This book is a testament to the relentless pursuit of equality and justice for all people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation,” Pizer said. “This is a reminder that although we have come this far, the work is not done yet.”
GLAAD had the opportunity to interview co-author Pizer about the book, why it was published so close to the election, and how it preserves LGBTQ history.
How did the idea of creating a concrete record of litigation come about? And how long has this been in development?
This book celebrates Lambda Legal’s 50th anniversary and is the brainchild of Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings and Keith Fox, CEO of Phaidon Press, the world’s leading publisher of beautiful coffee table books. Keith has been a fan of Regal’s work for many years. He and Kevin came up with the idea for this book to do more than one thing. First, it’s a great place for non-lawyers and lawyers alike to see how Lambda Legal’s impactful litigation and other advocacy efforts have brought transformative progress to our communities. It’s going to be a great showcase. Lambda Legal’s role is largely unknown even to many members of our community. As we talked about our history during this memorable year, we heard over and over again, “I didn’t know Lambda Legal handled that case!” Or, “Did you all come up with that strategy?” I didn’t know! “They envisioned this book as the perfect way to further tell our story in an engaging and easy-to-understand way.
Packed with photos and archival materials, this book also tells the story of how a small group of New York City lawyers in the aftermath of Stonewall grew into a national team tackling discrimination issues that touch every area of our lives. It’s a unique way of communicating. The concept was to feature dozens of stories and hundreds of images, offering readers of all kinds an immersive introduction to the world of LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy. There are many books on law, but most of them are written in words. And a lot of it was about our movement with photography, but also about what was going on, how the work was done, and how that impact fit into the bigger picture. There was no insider perspective. The book includes quotes from legal strategists about the challenges they faced, quotes from brave plaintiffs about their hopes and feelings, and graphics showing how the work progressed over time . It’s packed with insights from those involved, along with historical context for all readers.
The journey from inspired idea to book sale took just under three years. The story continues from Lambda Legal’s first lawsuit seeking the right to exist as a nonprofit organization under New York state law dedicated to providing legal services to “homosexuals.” From textbook bans to targeting transgender youth to today’s headlines about demands for Supreme Court reform.
Photo credit: Tom Tyburski/Lambda Legal
We have an election coming up and this book is the perfect resource. Was this timing intentional?
The publication of this book coincides with the conclusion of our 50th anniversary year, just as we go to the polls in a crucial election in which many of our fundamental civil rights are at stake. It is a complete coincidence that this book was published at that time. It would be great if this book inspired more people to vote. But to be honest, we think more deeply about how the hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state legislatures in recent years are causing panic, despair, and a sense of helplessness for many in our communities. Now it looks like this. I hope that, especially for young people, this book will provide reassurance and encouragement by showing how much we have accomplished against the varied but still overwhelming odds of the past. I hope. As ever, our opponents have far more resources than we do, and they have recently focused on making it excruciatingly difficult for transgender and non-binary youth to live openly as their authentic selves. We are working on this. I hope that many readers of this book will be inspired by our track record of success, know that we know how to fight back, and decide to participate in whatever way works for them. I hope.
What was the most interesting and memorable case study in this book?
I was responsible for most of the case selection, so this book only includes cases that I found interesting and important in some way. However, there are some cases that have significantly changed the law and public understanding across the country. One example is Nabozny v. Podlesny. In this case, we filed a lawsuit against Jamie Nabozny’s former public school after school officials accused him of violent bullying by his classmates. They said they should have expected the attack because Jamie is “boys will be boys” and Jamie is “pretending to be gay.” Our lawsuit imposes a nearly $1 million price tag for official silence on LGBTQ+ abuse and is a wake-up call for school administrators across the country.
We also hope that our Marriage Equality Cases will help educate judges and the public about why marriage is important to same-sex couples for many of the same reasons that this institution has been important to opposite-sex couples for many years. I hope readers will be excited to see how I put it all together. . A selection of family law cases in the chapter before the marriage chapter shows how we had to use piecemeal arguments to try to protect family relationships in an era when marriage was fully protected. It shows how it worked, shows how it only worked sometimes, and prepares the reader for a roadmap for matrimonial litigation. It was out of reach. Many of our older readers will remember or lived through those days. But younger readers may not realize what we had to do and how incomplete those meager legal protections were. Knowing our history can strengthen our stake in defending our victories in times of reactionary aggression.
We also hope that lawyers and non-lawyers alike will be intrigued to learn that there is a connection between litigation and advocating for passing laws to prevent certain types of problems in the first place. The book describes how, following the sudden death of a domestic partner, the surviving partners suddenly realized that they were not legally entitled to compensation, burial decisions, or as parents of the couple’s children. , several heartbreaking cases have been introduced. Tragic events like these inspired repeated improvements to California’s laws protecting registered domestic partners, and in doing so set the stage for the freedom to marry in the state. Although these synergies are not usually publicly apparent, we hope our readers will be interested and want to learn more about the less public aspects of our strategic advocacy.
Cary Boggan, founder of Lambda Legal (Photo courtesy of Lambda Legal)
What surprised you most while writing this book?
How fun and absorbing it is to use so many photos and other visual aids to showcase the case and draw the reader into its world, including quotes from the client, attorney, and even the judge. I didn’t think so. The feel of the story. I know that people take in information in different ways. But I haven’t had the opportunity to use infographics or artistic design to visually bring the information to life like I did in the book. I think this book is truly unique in that it provides so much information in an easy to read and immersive format. It was really fun and very satisfying to figure out how to make this happen.
It was also fun and gratifying to be able to show our readers how integral part of our impact advocacy is public education. And to show how much we are working to improve public systems such as children’s homes, prisons, and the justice system. A disproportionate number of LGBTQ+ people live within these systems (whether they want to or not), remain mostly out of public view, and often experience brutal prejudice with limited resources. there is. I’m proud of our work in these areas, and I was challenged and satisfied with how to make it visible and appealing.
Many members of the LGBTQ community would love to have this book, but ideally who would you want to have this book?
We especially want to see this book placed in school libraries, incorporated into class reading lists, and otherwise feel isolated and frightened by anti-LGBTQ+ bullying and other types of bigotry. I hope it will be available to those who have it. We believe this book will uplift them, make them feel proud, make them feel part of our large and welcoming movement, and motivate them to participate. It’s amazing what we’ve accomplished, from a time when homosexuality was criminalized in most parts of the country, to thousands of LGBTQ+ student clubs and the freedom to marry nationwide. And while there is still much work ahead of us, especially in light of the current escalating political attacks, the dozens of landmark victories profiled in this book will help us A history that beautifully depicts the courage of our community, the skill and strategic knowledge of our Lambda Legal team. And over the past few decades, we have steadily built up our success.
Sabrina Soujan, left, chair of the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade and Celebration, holds hands with her partner Paula at the start of the parade on Market Street in San Francisco on June 24, 1979. It’s been 10 years since the gay rights movement began. Police said more than 250,000 people took part in the afternoon parade. (Photo credit: Paul Sakuma/AP)
What does “A Claim for Equality” say about where you are now in your career and life?
My involvement with Lambda Legal and immersion in this field began as a student intern at New York University School of Law in the mid-’80s. For the past 40 years, I have served as a volunteer, board member, then in private practice for a while, and then as a staff member for many years. So we have had a front row seat, sometimes in the driver’s seat, challenging so many kinds of prejudice, invisibility, discrimination, loss, and making great progress. Today, as a legal department leader, I constantly apply lessons learned from thousands of past cases, legislative proposals, persuasion campaigns, victories and setbacks.
Legal advocacy efforts often evolve from precedent to precedent, with each success laying a new foundation for future efforts. Knowledge is power, and knowing our history is not only empowering, but also practical. Writing Making the Case for Equality was a trip down memory lane, going through photos and files to relive special moments with past clients, grieving once again the death of a beloved former colleague, and It was an opportunity to appreciate a partnership with brilliance and unexpected synergy. It was created between my co-author Professor Ellen Andersen, photo editor Michael Green, and senior paralegal Jamie Farnsworth. In collaboration with the talented team at Phaidon Press, we have created a record of this era that will resonate widely. It’s also personal. I left my private law firm 28 years ago. And thanks to the work detailed in this book, much of which I have had the privilege of participating in, my wife and I met in early October, a week before we toasted our 40th anniversary. We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. As they say, the personal is political, as well as legal and historical.
Purchase “Making the Case for Equality” here.
