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11:00a.m. – 12:00p.m.
TRANS
SENSITIVITY IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION
This one-hour interactive
session builds skills for working with
transgender clients and colleagues and understanding the
current
issues in the emerging area of transgender law.
Participants will
gain an understanding of key terms and concepts, major
areas of
discrimination, and the scope of current legal
protections.
Dean Spade,
Law Teaching Fellow, The Williams Institute
12:00p.m. – 1:00p.m. Working
lunch: NEW LGBT RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
Session I: The Impact of Prohibiting LGBT
Adoption and Foster Care: An Empirical Analysis
Several states are
considering legislation that would limit the ability of
lesbians and gay men to adopt or foster children. This
session presents findings from a new Williams Institute
study, coauthored by the Urban Institute, which describes
the demographic characteristics of lesbian and gay parents
and their children and estimates the costs to states of
denying them parenting rights.
Gary J. Gates, Ph.D.,
Senior Research Fellow, The Williams Institute
Jennifer E. Macomber, Research Associate, Center on
Labor, Human Services & Population, The Urban Institute
Moderated by
Mignon R. Moore, Ph.D., Assistant
Professor, Department of Sociology, UCLA
Session II: 2005 DUKEMINIER AWARDS: Marriage
Scholarship
The Dukeminier Awards,
a publication of the Williams Institute, recognizes the
best sexual orientation law scholarship published each
year. The award-winning authors from 2005 will present
their articles, each of which offers a unique contribution
to scholarship extending marriage to same-sex couples.
Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Professor of
Law, UCLA Law presenting Same-Sex Marriage and
Slippery Slopes, 33 Hofstra L. Rev. 1155 (2005).
Tobias Barrington Wolff, Professor of Law, UC Davis
School of Law presenting Interest Analysis in
Interjurisdictional Marriage Disputes, 153 U. Pa. L.
Rev. 2215 (2005).
Moderated by
Christine A. Littleton, Professor
of Law, UCLA Law and Chair, UCLA Women’s Studies Program
Session III: Barriers to Health Care Access
for Trans People
The majority of
health insurance companies and Medicaid programs still
exclude transgender health care from coverage, resulting
in significant health crises in transgender communities
across the nation. This panel will focus on current
developments in this area, with panelists suggesting
strategies for significant change in law and policy.
Gabriel Arkles,
Equal Justice Works Fellow, Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Pooja Gehi, Staff Attorney, Sylvia Rivera Law
Project
R. Nick Gorton, M.D., DABEM, Lyon-Martin Women’s
Health Services
Moderated by
Dean Spade, Law Teaching Fellow,
The Williams Institute
EUROPEAN UNIONS
WHAT CAN THE U.S. LEARN FROM EUROPE ABOUT EXTENDING
MARRIAGE TO GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES?
1:10p.m. – 2:00p.m.
GOING DUTCH: Lessons
from the Netherlands
Keynote Address: Boris O. Dittrich, Former Member, Parliament of the Netherlands
Boris O. Dittrich,
member of the Dutch Parliament from 1994 to 2006,
sponsored the legislation that resulted in the Netherlands
becoming the first nation in the world to extend marriage
to gay and lesbian couples. In this year’s keynote
address, Mr. Dittrich will discuss his six years of
courageous legislative leadership to pass this
legislation, and its political and social consequences for
the Netherlands and the world.
2:00p.m. – 2:50p.m. THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE:
Empirical Data from Europe
Based on the
experience of Scandinavia and the Netherlands,
conservative commentators in the United States have argued
that extending marriage to gay and lesbian couples will
reduce marriage rates and increase rates of divorce and
non-marital births. Professors Badgett and Eskridge will
present their recently published empirical research that
contradicts these arguments. Professor Eskridge’s analysis
is based on two years of research in Denmark and Professor
Badgett’s is based on a year of research in the
Netherlands. The conversation will be facilitated by Evan
Wolfson, one of the United States’ leading experts on
marriage equality.
M.V. Lee Badgett, PhD, Research Director, The
Williams Institute
William
Eskridge, Esq.,
John A. Garver Professor
of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School
Moderated by
Evan Wolfson, Executive Director,
Freedom to Marry
2:50p.m. – 3:10p.m. Break & Book Signing
During the break,
Professors Eskridge and Badgett will be available
to sign copies of their recently published books: Gay
Marriage: For
Better or For Worse? What We’ve Learned from the Evidence
by
William N. Eskridge, Jr. and Darren R. Spedale; and
Sexual
Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective,
edited by
M.V. Lee Badgett and Jefferson Frank.
3:10p.m. – 4:30p.m. BRINGING IT HOME:
Recent
Developments in the U.S.
2006 was a sobering year in the fight for marriage
equality. What are
the lessons of the past year, and what light does the
European
experience shed on the path forward? A panel of national
experts will
discuss the past year and what to expect in 2007.
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