The recent release of the majority Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization indicates the high court is dismantling 50 years of precedent concerning reproductive rights. Legal scholars also worry the sweeping opinion leaves other critical civil rights—particularly the hard-fought gains of America's LGBTQ community—vulnerable.

Dentons Senior Counsel Evan Wolfson, who helped engineer the freedom to marry over three decades of legal and political campaigning, joined Lambda Legal's Jenny Pizer and the National Center for Lesbian Rights' Shannon Minter in a moderated discussion led by GLOW co-chairs Sandra Tsung and James Richardson for a special CLE panel on the future of LGBTQ rights in a post-Roe world.

Course materials are available here.

The webinar recording is available here.

Speakers

Evan Wolfson is senior counsel at Dentons and an internationally recognized civil rights lawyer and strategist. He was the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, the pioneering campaign which drove the successful strategy that won same-sex couples the right to marry throughout the United States.

Widely acknowledged as the architect of the marriage equality movement, Evan has been an advocate for human rights around the world since 1983, when he wrote his Harvard Law School thesis on gay people and the freedom to marry. During the 1990s he served as co-counsel in the historic Hawaii marriage case that launched the ongoing global freedom to marry conversation, and has participated in numerous gay rights and HIV/AIDS cases.

Jennifer Pizer is the Law and Policy Director for Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and people living with HIV. Since joining Lambda Legal's staff in 1996, Pizer has been a leading voice for ending marriage discrimination against lesbian and gay couples, for stopping anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, health care, and education, and against the misuse of religion to discriminate. In addition to litigating impact cases, she develops legislation, advises policymakers, and works with community advocates to advance family law and nondiscrimination protections, and to oppose overbroad religious exemptions.

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 discrimination during an inpatient stay, resulting in a landmark opinion holding that discrimination based on a person’s transgender identity is sex discrimination under the Affordable Care Act. Amy also represents Adree Edmo, a transgender woman housed in the Idaho Department of Corrections who was denied gender affirming surgery despite her desperate need for that care. NCLR, along with co-counsel, obtained an order finding that the denial of care violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and requiring prison officials to provide the surgery. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision, which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review. In July 2020, Ms. Edmo became the first person in the country to receive court-ordered surgery in prison. Amy also represents Mary Walsh and Bev Nance in their litigation against a senior living facility that denied them housing because they are a same-sex couple. Before joining NCLR, Amy was an associate at the San Francisco firm of Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld LLP (RBGG). In 2008 and 2009, Amy was a member of the trial team in Coleman/Plata v. Schwarzenegger, a combined lawsuit challenging the California prison system’s unconstitutional provision of medical and mental healthcare because of severe overcrowding. A unanimous three-judge panel ruled in favor of the prisoners in that case and the United States Supreme Court affirmed that decision in 2011. Amy received her Bachelor’s Degree from Princeton University and her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law.

CLE Credit

CLE credit for the live webinars is being sought in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Credit for all other states must be applied for and submitted by individual attendees. Compliance with each state's MCLE requirements is the sole responsibility of the attendee.

Dentons can only issue CLE credit for attendance during the live broadcast of the webinar. Credit for viewing a pre-recorded session is the responsibility of the individual.

Questions?

For additional information or questions regarding this event, please contact Kasey Kapitanek at Kasey.kapitanek@dentons.com.

Return to the In-House Counsel CLE Webinar Series: Spring Forward overview