LGBTQIA+

Paul, Weiss has long been a leader in nationwide efforts to secure equal rights for LGBTQIA+ communities.

In 2013, representing Edith Windsor, we won a historic Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor, which led to the recognition of the constitutional right of same-sex couples to be married. Windsor was the culmination of nearly a decade of litigation by our firm to establish the principle of marriage equality in the law.

Today, we are working with our pro bono partners to challenge a wave of recently enacted discriminatory legislation that would ban health care providers from performing gender affirming care and bar educators, counselors, and others from supporting LGBTQIA+ youth.

We are leading numerous other efforts on behalf of LGBTQIA+ communities:

• We represent Clinton Housing Development Corporation in the potential redevelopment of Hartley House, a settlement house that has been an integral part of the Hell’s Kitchen community since 1897, as a facility that will include supportive housing for LGBTQIA+ seniors and community services, with programming sponsored by Hudson Guild.
• We assisted the National Queer Theater, a theater collective dedicated to celebrating LGBTQIA+ artists, with negotiating and drafting production agreements in connection with the 2020 Criminal Queerness Festival. The festival supports the development and production of new plays by international and immigrant theater-makers and playwrights who are experiencing censorship or criminalization in their countries of origin.
• In partnership with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and The New York Civil Liberties Foundation, we represent a Black transgender woman in her lawsuit suit against Broome County, the Broome County Sheriff, and Broome County Jail officials, seeking redress for the violence, threats, discrimination, and denial of medical care that she experienced while incarcerated at Broome County Jail. The lawsuit seeks policy changes to protect all transgender people in Broome County custody.
• In partnership with The Legal Aid Society, we successfully advocated for the early release of a transgender pro bono client incarcerated at a New York state correctional facility. The victory followed our litigation and advocacy campaign to secure the release from state prison of transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary and intersex New Yorkers, who are especially medically vulnerable to COVID-19.
• In partnership with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and Legal Services New York, we have helped scores of transgender individuals obtain name changes so their legal identity can match their lived experience.
• In partnership with Immigration Equality and others, we have represented asylum seekers who fled their home countries due to persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.