K-12 Dive’s Post

One of the most important pieces of the law school process is making sure that you feel safe and supported at the school you’ll be attending. Read our blog for some tips on how you can research LGBTQ+ friendly law schools! 👉🏾 If you're interested in personalized application support, visit our website to learn about our 10% off discount for LGBTQ+ applicants. #pridemonth #lawschool #lgbtq

When Florida passed the #DontSayGayOrTrans law, Equality Florida, Family Equality and NCLR – National Center for Lesbian Rights fought back in the courts. Thanks to their swift action and legal expertise, today students and teachers in #Florida have critical protections that didn't exist before the law was signed. In this #Perspective from Nathan Kasai, learn how strategic litigation can transform the landscape, even in unlikely places and after tough losses:

LEAF is going to court tomorrow to highlight the impact of the notwithstanding clause (NWC)—also known as the override clause—on trans youth in Saskatchewan. The case is about what courts can and cannot say concerning a law once the NWC has been invoked. It's simple: when a law infringes Charter rights, especially the rights of marginalized groups, courts must not be silenced. Their declaration of the law as discriminatory or rights-violating can be critical in affirming the experiences of those impacted and keeping the general public informed. “Courts play a vital role in recognizing experiences of discrimination,” said Pam Hrick, Executive Director & General Counsel of LEAF. “In a public context where transgender youth are not believed to be credible narrators of their own identities and experiences of discrimination, it is even more necessary that courts publicly recognize their lived experiences.” Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dZXB_Q93

The Biden administration’s Title IX rule, which promises greater protections for LGBTQ students under the federal gender-equity law, is now blocked in 10 states, and more than 20 states are suing, accusing the Education Department of overstepping its authority. We take a closer look at what’s at stake for Biden’s Title IX rule, and for the college administrators responsible for retooling campus policies, during this wave of litigation:

Let's never forget that politicians with agendas do not actually have final say in what's constitutional - this is the real danger of us losing sight on the differences between what is constitutional, what is legal and constitutional, and what has been introduced as law in hopes that we'll defer to political process over democratic process. In some cases we're even deferring to laws which may be blatantly unconstitutional even when they have not been made law. This is a grave risk and why education and critical thinking is so important. We can't keep confusing democracy - including space for people with differences to be seen and heard as people - with a political agenda for power and influence.

The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG writes — Our governments are good at many things. But it was our government that enabled the stolen generations, the dispossession of Indigenous land, the laws oppressing women, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. The aged care and robodebt royal commissions make it clear that anyone’s human rights can be trampled by government decisions at any time – not just people in minority groups. History shows that parliament and public officials do not always do well at protecting individual human rights. Particularly for minorities. That is why we need to embed the principles espoused in the UDHR in our national laws, as tools to support parliament in protecting human rights. Doing so will ensure members of parliament are mindful of the core principles that unite us as human beings. It will help to ensure that the laws and policies they oversee are consistent with those principles. It will also create a “rights-minded” culture – a greater understanding in the community of what our basic rights are. Hopefully, it will encourage education of this in schools. In the same way that a copy of the UDHR sparked my interest in human rights in 1949, I hope that future generations of Australian children may – on their tablets, if not on flimsy aerogram paper – read the core principles in a National Human Rights Act. Then they will know their rights are, finally, protected by the law of this country. Parliament will still have the last word, but the people will have new means to get action before inquiries and apologies are needed.

"Newsom signed into law on July 15 Assembly Bill 1955 — aka the SAFETY Act — which bars public-school districts from requiring staff to notify parents if their children change their preferred pronouns or gender identities. California is the first state to pass such a law... Danielle King, a senior youth policy counsel at National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the law also provides resources for parents and ensures retaliation protection for teachers who refuse to forcibly “out” students. The law is critical for transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary students, King said, because of the rate of suicide ideation and attempts among transgender youth. According to the Trevor Project’s 2023 national survey on LGBTQ youth aged 13-24, 56% of transgender young men, 48% of transgender young women, 48% of nonbinary young people and 44% of gender-questioning youth contemplated suicide last year. King told The Examiner that “the criticisms of the SAFETY Act are based on misinformation about the new law.” “Its main purpose is to ensure that [transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary] students are treated equally and that their privacy is respected so that they can thrive in school, just as their peers,” she said." https://lnkd.in/eXaFZsA2 #AB1955 #SAFETYAct #LGBTQyouth #forcedouting #education NCLR – National Center for Lesbian Rights

The Georgetown Journal of Gender and The Law is now accepting submissions for our Spring 2025 Symposium Issue, Transcendence: Legal Efforts to Protect and Advance LGBTQIA+ Youth Rights!

Time is winding down before there’s a possibility that updated Title IX rules could be blocked by a new Congress or presidential administration. Policy experts say it’s likely the department will finalize two key proposals this spring, after the department’s latest self-imposed deadline of March. The broader Title IX proposal released in June 2022 would protect LGBTQ+ students under the federal anti-discrimination law for the first time. The second proposal, released nearly a year later in April 2023, would create a framework for transgender students’ participation on sports teams aligning with their gender identities. #titleix #edpolicy #lgbtqstudents

The decisive guidance from the long awaited and recently released Biden Administration Title IX final rule, which directs institutions of higher ed how to prevent and respond to incidents of sexual violence, and which offers bold leadership by bolstering infrastructure and support for victim-survivors of sexual violence and enshrining LGBTQ+ folks as a protected group, is proving to be polarizing in the U.S.' deeply divided political climate. As Jamie Snow and I discuss in our upcoming book chapter (in press with The Forum on Education Abroad), the push-pull between what is necessary and what is right often means the path forward is ambiguous and complex. University Title IX practitioners in these states are facing this dilemma: how to change practice and policy to comply with federal guidelines without violating state law. Following this one closely. https://lnkd.in/eSzN9sdw