The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law

04/13/2024

We had an incredible day yesterday talking about the present and future of the - an event jointly sponsored by The ERA Project and Georgetown Law. We were joined by Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, Senator Ben Cardin, Mazie Hirono, and Kirsten Gillibrand. Huge thanks to Victoria Nourse and her team, and Ting Ting Cheng and Naomi Young from the ERA Project for their incredibly hard work to make the conference such a success. Also so thankful to my colleagues Olati Johnson and David Pozen for their very thoughtful contributions to the conversation.

04/08/2024

was out in force today, hoping the eclipse will bring the harmonic convergence we need to get the finally ratified!

02/04/2024

“I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” – Rosa Parks in her 1992 autobiography, “Rosa Parks: My Story.”

Happy birthday, Rosa Parks! Last summer, film director and screenwriter Yoruba Richen () joined ERA Project director Ting Ting Cheng for a screening and conversation about Richen’s 2022 documentary, "The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks.” Watch the interview here: youtube.com/watch?v=Oj_vSPwPF6s

02/01/2024

As we celebrate Black History Month here at the ERA Project, we remain keenly aware of the changes that still need to take place for equality to become a reality for ALL. Last , we released “The S*x Equality Gap: How the 20th Century S*x Equality Paradigm Continues to Leave Women of Color Behind,” in which we highlighted how Black, Indigenous and Latina women still bear the brunt of the . Read the full report: https://tinyurl.com/sex-equality-gap

11/20/2023

A legal battle is raging in Colorado over whether or not the state can ban medication abortion reversal, a procedure which isn't backed by mainstream medical science. MedPage Today interviewed LRRP Associate Director Dr. Christine Ryan on Bella Health v. Weiser, the case currently under consideration. Check out the full article here: https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/107134

11/20/2023

Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa, CC ’24, was named a 2024 Rhodes Scholar on Saturday, joining a cohort of 32 students from the United States selected for the prestigious postgraduate scholarship.

11/20/2023

This year alone, the Human Rights Campaign has tracked the murders of at least 26 transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. 88% of victims were Black or Brown people, 54% were Black Trans women, and 73% were killed with a gun. Half of the victims were misgendered or deadnamed by the authorities or in the press after their murders.

At the Center for Gender & S*xuality Law, we are committed to working towards trans liberation by training the next generation of lawyers and activists in the fight for gender justice.

11/16/2023

Back in August, LRRP Director Liz Reiner Platt published "The Abortion Exception: A Response to 'Abortion and Religious Liberty'" on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). This article responds to recent critiques of litigation articulating a religious liberty right to access abortion. It argues, among other points, that existing secular exemptions in abortion laws undermine the state’s alleged compelling government interest in prohibiting abortion.

Read and download the full article here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4557180

11/15/2023

November is National Native American Heritage Month, and we are taking this month as an opportunity to highlight the ways in which women of color–particularly Indigenous American women–are disproportionately impacted by gendered pay disparities. In the United States, Native women earn a mere $0.60 for every $1.00 earned by White, non-Hispanic men, amounting to $900,000 in lost earnings over the course of a 40-year career. Check out the ERA Project’s report, “The S*x Equality Gap: How the 20th Century S*x Equality Paradigm Continues to Leave Women of Color Behind” for further breakdowns of pay disparities and to learn how the ERA could help close this gap: gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/Images/THE%20SEX%20EQUALITY%20GAP%202023.pdf

11/14/2023

We are deeply grateful for and inspired by the hard work of the Law, Rights & Religion Project's partners at Faith Choice Ohio and Catholics for Choice, whose consistent efforts contributed to the electoral success of Ohio's Issue I last week! Issue I enshrines protections for reproductive health services–including abortion–in Ohio's state constitution. Voters are showing us that reproductive rights are important to them, and faith-based movements are a key part of that electoral push.

11/14/2023

On Sunday, Dr. Christine Ryan of the Law, Rights & Religion Project will join the American Academy of Religion's Public Understanding of Religion Committee at AAR's annual meeting to speak on collaborating across disciplines in support of abortion and reproductive justice. More information here:

The 2023 Annual Meetings in San Antonio, Texas, November 18–21, hosted by the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), is the world's largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion.

11/13/2023

A week from today, Dr. Christine Ryan of the Law, Rights & Religion Project (LRRP) will speak at the Forum on Anti-Trans Legislation alongside Milo Inglehart of the Transgender Law Center. This event, hosted by the Union Theological Seminary's Q***r Caucus in partnership with LRRP, will explore the religious underpinnings of anti-transgender legislation in the United States.

Join us Wednesday, November 15th, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Union Theological Seminary's James Chapel or via livestream (virtual attendance information coming soon). RSVP here to save your spot: tinyurl.com/Forum-Anti-Trans-Legislation