Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

State V. Hudgen¸ 272 A.3d 1069 (R.I. 2022)., Judd W. Krasher

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law Library Blog (January 2023): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Gender Equality: A Study Of Comply-Or-Explain Disclosure Regulation, Aaron A. Dhir, Sarah Kaplan, Maria Arabella Robles

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Nasdaq Stock Market filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to adopt a board diversity-related disclosure requirement for its listed companies. In 2021, the SEC approved the proposal, thus entrenching Nasdaq’s position as the most significant stock exchange to date to mandate listing rules that reflect the intention of diversifying corporate boardrooms. Nasdaq’s movement into the diversity space is not the first attempt to address homogeneous boards in the U.S. In 2009, the SEC adopted a rule requiring publicly traded firms to report on whether they consider diversity in identifying director nominees. …

Judicial Ethics And The Eradication Of Racism, Dontay Proctor-Mills

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Washington Supreme Court entrusted the legal community with working to eradicate racism from its legal system. Soon after, Washington’s Commission on Judicial Conduct (hereinafter the Commission) received a complaint about a bus ad for North Seattle College featuring King County Superior Court Judge David Keenan. Along with a photo of Judge Keenan’s face, the ad included the following language: “A Superior Court Judge, David Keenan got into law in part to advocate for marginalized communities. David’s changing the world. He started at North.” The Commission admonished Judge Keenan for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct, in part …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Why Corporate Boards Should Include Lgbtq+ People, Jeremy Mcclane, Darren Rosenblum

Seattle University Law Review

Corporate boardrooms sit at the heart of most of society’s most consequential decisions but fall far short of the diversity of our society. The current movement toward board diversification aims to remedy the underrepresentation of marginalized groups on corporate boards. More recently, some efforts have included LGBTQ+ people, even though the basis for their inclusion on corporate boards remains largely unstated. This Article examines both the normative and instrumental bases for LGBTQ+ inclusion in board diversity initiatives, articulating unspoken assumptions and linking LGBTQ+ people to the broader inclusion effort. In so doing, it begins to surface the unique issues LGBTQ+ …

Different Countries, Same Homophobia And Transphobia: A Cross-Cultural Survey Of So-Called Conversion Therapy Practices And The Move Toward Legislative Protections For The United States Lgbtq+ Community, Samantha J. Past

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

So-called “conversion therapy” consists of dangerous practices that inflict detrimental, long-lasting effects on its victims. As a form of sexual orientation or gender identity or gender expression change efforts, conversion therapy is fostered by global homophobia and transphobia. Despite formal public rejection and scientific discreditation, conversion therapy providers across the world continue to target LGBTQ+ individuals, predominately under the guise of offering health care services or obeying religious practices. The following piece compares conversion therapy in three countries with recently introduced LGBTQ+ legislation––(1) Ghana; (2) Canada; and (3) the United States (U.S.)–––in order to identify factors furthering conversion therapy and …

Inconceivable Families, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

Basic biology tells us that each child has no more than two biological parents, one who supplies the egg and one who supplies the sperm. Adoption law in this country has generally followed biology, insisting only two parents be legally recognized for each child. Thus, every adoption begins with loss. Before a child can be adopted, that child must first be cut off from their family of birth, rendering the equation of adoption one of subtraction, not addition. This Article examines the biological model of adoption that insists on mimicking the nuclear family—erasing one set of parents and replacing them …

Legislating A Pathway To Improved Outcomes For People Living With Hiv And Lgbtq+ Nevadans, Dallas Harris, André Wade

Nevada Law Journal

During the Nevada 81st Legislative Session in 2021, two groundbreaking bills were passed and signed into law that will significantly impact the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals and those living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The first bill, Senate Bill 275, modernizes outdated and ineffective laws that criminalize HIV. Senate Bill 109 requires government entities in Nevada to collect sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) demographic information to have a better understanding of the number of LGBTQ+ individuals living in Nevada and their overall health and well-being. These bills will help LGBTQ+ …

Determining Marriage Length In Support Calculations: Should Cohabitation Count?, Mark Strasser

Journal of Law and Policy

Many states have sought to make spousal support awards more predictable by linking them to marital length. States doing so must decide whether to include premarital cohabitation within the calculation determining marriage duration, which for many couples will significantly affect the ultimate determination. This Article discusses some of the difficulties in achieving consistency and predictability in marital length determinations, focusing on how the supreme courts in Massachusetts and North Dakota have sacrificed those goals in their attempts to achieve what they likely thought to be more equitable results in individual cases.

Identity Documents For Transgender Texans: A Proposal For A Uniform System For Correcting Gender Markers In Texas, Lydia R. Harris

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Texas’s lack of a codified gender correction process is unjust, illegal, and against public policy. This comment highlights the injustice faced by transgender Texans without gender concordant identity documents. These injustices include discrimination based on gender stereotypes, violation of the transgender individual’s right to privacy, and violations of public policy. This comment explores possible solutions to the injustices faced by transgender Texans due to the lack of a codified uniform way to correct gender markers in Texas modeled on other jurisdictions’ approaches to this problem.

First, this comment traces the history of the recognition of transgender people and transgender rights …

Small Gestures And Unexpectedconsequences: Textualist Interpretationsof State Antidiscrimination Lawafter Bostock V. Clayton County, Anastasia E. Lacina

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County expanded Title VII’s coverage of victims of sex discrimination in employment by interpreting the statute to also protect LGBTQ+ employees who were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Although Bostock only applies precedentially to Title VII, the long and interwoven history of state antidiscrimination statutes shows that the ruling may reach beyond federal law. This Note examines state court cases that have considered whether to apply Bostock’s reasoning to the interpretation of state antidiscrimination statutes. Furthermore, this Note argues in favor of a path …

Transgender Student-Athletes Punch Back: A Legal Analysis Of States' "Fairness In Women's Sports Act" And How It Violates The Fourteenth Amendment And Title Ix, Daniel Jimenez

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property Prohibitions: Why Criminalizing Prostitution Violates Constitutional Guarantees, James J. Bernstein

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bumble Bill: A Critical Analysis On Texas’S New Law Taking Indecent Exposure Regulations Online, Ashley B. Huron

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the unique interactions between pregnancy, substance involvement, and race as they relate to the War on Drugs and the hyper-incarceration of women. Using ordinary least square regression analyses and data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, I examine if (and how) pregnancy status, drug use, race, and their interactions influence two length of incarceration outcomes: sentence length and amount of time spent in jail between arrest and imprisonment. The results collectively indicate that pregnancy decreases length of incarceration outcomes for those offenders who are not substance-involved but not evenhandedly -- benefitting white …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Dirty Johns: Prosecuting Prostituted Women In Pennsylvania And The Need For Reform, Mckay Lewis

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Prostitution is as old as human civilization itself. Throughout history, public attitudes toward prostituted women have varied greatly. But adverse consequences of the practice—usually imposed by men purchasing sexual services—have continuously been present. Prostituted women have regularly been subject to violence, discrimination, and indifference from their clients, the general public, and even law enforcement and judicial officers.

Jurisdictions can choose to adopt one of three general approaches to prostitution regulation: (1) criminalization; (2) legalization/ decriminalization; or (3) a hybrid approach known as the Nordic Model. Criminalization regimes are regularly associated with disparate treatment between prostituted women and their clients, high …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Can We Have Our Cake And Eat It Too?: What Masterpiece Cakeshop And Religious Refusals Mean For Texas’S Adoption Bill, Nadeen Abou-Hossa

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Balancing Religious Liberties And Antidiscrimination Interests In The Public Employment Context: The Impact Of Masterpiece Cakeshop And American Legion, Brenda Bauges

University of Richmond Law Review

Finally, this Article concludes by analyzing different potential methods for trying to balance religious liberty claims with antidiscrimination concerns, and thus Establishment Clause concerns, in public employment. This Article argues for a combination of relevant tests that balances the magnitude and likelihood of third party harm, substantiality of burden to religious liberty, and availability or prevalence of secular accommodations. This test provides room for factual inquiry and context-specific value judgments, while still allowing a workable framework, the results of which are sufficiently predictable that employers and employees are not left to wonder about the boundaries by which their relationship should …

Shared Histories: The Feminist And Gay Liberation Movements For Freedom In Public, Elizabeth Sepper, Deborah Dinner

University of Richmond Law Review

This Symposium on the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion presents the opportunity to evaluate the regulation and deregulation of gender and sexuality in public space. In 1969, LGBTQ people erupted against policing, harassment, and exclusion in public spaces. While they had engaged in earlier, smaller protests and reforms, Stonewall ignited a mass gay liberation movement and sparked popular awareness of LGBTQ people’s civil rights struggles. LGBTQ activists demanded their rights to express identity, associate with one another, and engage in queer behavior. That same year, the newly burgeoning feminist movement also launched protests and called for women’s equality in …

From The Mattachine Society To Megan Rapinoe: Tracing And Telegraphing The Conformist/Visionary Divide In The Lgbt Rights Movement, Kyle C. Velte

University of Richmond Law Review

From the beginning of the LGBT civil rights movement, there has been an intracommunity debate concerning strategies and tactics to effect legal and social change. On one end of the spectrum, the lesbian and gay organizations of the 1950s—the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis—advocated an assimilationist strategy that sought tolerance rather than full acceptance and integration. The tactics to affect this strategy are best described as conservative and conventional—to look and act as “straight” as possible in order to convince courts, legislatures, and the public that lesbians and gay men should be left alone rather than fired from …

Framing Legislation Banning The "Gay And Trans Panic" Defenses, Jordan Blair Woods

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article, prepared for the University of Richmond Law Reviewsymposium commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, uses the Stonewall Riots as an opportunity to analyze and theorize the political dimensions of legislation banning the gay and trans panic defenses. As a moment of resistance to state violence against LGBTQ people, the Stonewall Riots are a useful platform to examine the historical and current relationship between the state and the gay and trans panic defenses. Drawing on original readings of medical literature, this Article brings the historical role of the state in the growth of gay …

Building Queer Families And The Ethics Of Gestational Surrogacy, Kimberly Mutcherson

University of Richmond Law Review

Throughout American history, government has used the law to deny some citizens the right to create or sustain families with children to show contempt for those citizens. As LGBT people fought for dignity, equality, and justice from Stonewall to the present, one of the greatest success stories of that fight is the change in how the law defines and protects families. Into the 1990s, people in samesex relationships had cause to fear that their sexual orientation could be used to deprive them of custody of their children. Now, many states, through statute or case law, routinely recognize two parents of …

Lgbt Rights In The Fields Of Criminal Law And Law Enforcement, Carrie L. Buist

University of Richmond Law Review

In couching this discussion within the theoretical and practical application of queer criminology, this Essay will highlight the marginalization of LGBTQ+ folks and explore the impact that intersectionality has on the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community with special attention on law enforcement. For example, queer criminology studies the persistent distrust that the LGBTQ+ community has of police as well as the experiences of LGBTQ+ identified police officers and other agents within the criminal legal system. Further, as the current Administration continues to roll back the rights and liberties of the LGBTQ+ community, there must be a focus on how past …

Gender Stereotypes And Gender Identity In Public Schools, Dara E. Purvis

University of Richmond Law Review

Given the changing interpretation of Title IX, both statutory and constitutional arguments supporting the right of public school students to express their gender in any manner contrary to traditional gendered norms have renewed vitality. In the decades since Stonewall, students facing school discipline for nonconforming gender presentation that violated school dress codes have attempted to challenge the dress codes as violating their First Amendment free expression rights. Tracing these arguments is not only helpful as a historical exercise, but also to present alternative arguments under an unsympathetic presidential administration and Supreme Court. In today’s world in which the Trump administration …

Queering Reproductive Justice, Marie-Amélie George

University of Richmond Law Review

Queer reproductive justice applies the reproductive justice movement’s principles to queer needs and interests. The reproductive justice movement differs from the reproductive rights struggle by emphasizing that reproductive rights are about much more than whether and how to terminate a pregnancy.3 Founded in the mid- 1990s by feminists of color, this movement adopted a holistic approach to reproductive rights. As advocates argued, people’s ability to exercise personal bodily autonomy, decide to have or not have children, and raise any children they had were also reproductive rights concerns. Reproductive justice work thus encompasses a range of topics, including accessing sex education …

Dead Hand Vogue, Anthony Michael Kreis

University of Richmond Law Review

For decades, courts read employment antidiscrimination laws’ prohibition of sex discrimination to exclude gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers’ sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination claims—purportedly because the claims were not linked to employees’ status as a man or a woman. And while significant doctrinal developments have afforded some gender-nonconforming persons critical workplace safeguards under sex antidiscrimination laws, many older decisions that deemed sexual orientation and transgender discrimination claims to be outside the ambit of sex discrimination still control. These decades-old precedents all suffer from the same analytical error: a failure to adhere to the principle that antidiscrimination law does …

Riding The Storm Out After The Stonewall Riots: Subsequent Waves Of Lgbt Rights In Family Formation And Reproduction, Colleen Marea Quinn

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article will explore how LGBT family formation has evolved since the Stonewall Riots. The primary means for LGBT families to build their families, other than traditional intercourse between a man and a woman, were and continue to be through adoption and Assisted Reproductive Technologies (“ART”). In the world of assisted reproduction, typically a lesbian couple or a single woman use donor sperm, either known or unknown, coupled with artificial insemination. Gay men traditionally utilize a traditional or true surrogate (who is genetically related to the child) along with artificial insemination using the sperm of an intended father. As medical …