LGBTQ+

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

We are leading numerous current efforts on behalf of LGBTQ+ communities:

• In partnership with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and The New York Civil Liberties Foundation, we successfully represented a Black transgender woman in her lawsuit suit against Broome County, seeking redress for the violence, threats, discrimination, and denial of medical care that she experienced while incarcerated at Broome County Jail. Through the lawsuit we secured important policy changes that will protect all transgender people in Broome County custody.
• 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 LGBTQ+ seniors and community services, with programming sponsored by Hudson Guild.
• We assisted the National Queer Theater, a theater collective dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ 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 Advocates for Trans Equality 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.