Policy Work
The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF), Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, and Athlete Ally submitted a comment on the proposed rule changes to Title IX, released on April 6, 2023.
The proposed rule affirms that it is illegal for schools to broadly ban transgender, nonbinary and intersex students from sports teams that align with their gender identity, rather than their assigned sex at birth. However, these organizations are concerned that the proposed rule, as written, does not provide sufficient clarity to prevent bad actors from attempting to limit the participation of some transgender, nonbinary and intersex athletes based on impermissible sex- and race-based stereotypes. With that in mind, TLDEF, the Clinic, and Athlete Ally submitted this comment to the U.S. Department of Education about the proposed rule changes.
The Biden Administration has issued a proposed rule that affirms that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972—commonly referred to as Title IX—secures the rights of transgender, non-binary, and intersex students to play school sports free from blanket discriminatory exclusions. Following the Administration’s proposal, the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic and the National Women’s Law Center released a toolkit with background information on Title IX and information on how members of the public can support the positive aspects of this new rule while continuing to push for explicit protection from discrimination for all transgender, non-binary, and intersex student athletes.
Alexander Chen, Founding Director of the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, served as a guest editor for the Fall 2022 issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, which focused on transgender health equity and the law. The full issue can be found online here; an introduction by guest editors Alexander Chen and Heather Walter-McCabe can be found online here.
In September, 2022, the we participated in a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for a discussion on the increased visibility of transgender people, the progress in securing transgender rights, the backlash that has taken place as a result, and ways that people can support transgender rights and lives moving forward. The Forum will feature a panel of guests who can speak to these issues in the United States and around the world. The original forum description can be found online here; a video of the forum available online here.
In partnership with Beyond Binary Legal, we authored a white paper containing detailed recommendations for all federal agencies, including the White House, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, on how each agency can enforce nondiscrimination protections and advance equity for nonbinary people.
Co-created with interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, the nation’s largest intersex rights organization, the Intersex Legislative Advocacy Toolkit is now available to advocates and local and state elected officials nationwide. The Toolkit provides resources and guidance to activists who are seeking to end the practice of performing medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children.
Click here to access a mobile-friendly version. Click here to access a PDF version.
In partnership with Chosen Family Law Center and the American Psychological Association Division 44 Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy, the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic co-founded the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC), a multi-disciplinary coalition of academic and legal professionals. PLAC seeks to advance the civil and human rights of polyamorous individuals, communities, and families through legislative advocacy, public policy, and public education. These rights include the legal recognition of diverse relationship structures, such as multi-partner/multi-parent families, diverse family structures, and relationships involving consensual non-monogamy, and the end of discrimination based on relationship status.
With PLAC’s assistance, Cambridge, MA, and Arlington, MA, Cambridge recently passed historic ordinances permitting multi-partner domestic partnerships.
In partnership with Baker Botts L.L.P., the Clinic co-authored a public comment on behalf of the National Trans Bar Association opposing proposed new regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Urban Housing and Development (“HUD”) that would allow temporary and emergency shelters to discriminate against transgender and gender nonconforming people by denying them access to single-sex shelters consistent with their gender identity.