Event Empowering LGBT

The overheard slur in the hall, the shove on the steps, the put down by a teacher, the shunning by parents or foster parents—we’ve all heard the horrors that many LGBT youth have to face on a daily basis.

Increasingly, there are laws and policies in place to protect LGBT young people in school, in foster care, and in their own homes. But they can’t work unless we know about them.

James Gilliam, who has been at the forefront of this emerging body of law, will outline the legal protections that LGBT youth have. He’ll also talk about how to seek redress if you or your children’s rights have been violated.

Gilliam, deputy executive director of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Southern California, is a long-time activist for the LGBT community. Besides helping to manage the day-to-day operations of the $7 million organization, he directs the ACLU/SC’s LGBT Rights Project.

Some of his LGBT related cases include working on the legal effort to overturn Proposition 8, defending a LGBT teenager thrown out of his home when he came out as gay and transgender, and representing an HIV positive woman facing deportation. He has written well-received and widely cited articles on LGBT youth in the foster care system and on the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

Gilliam is also an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, where he teaches seminars regarding Sexual Orientation and the Law. He is the co-chair of the Sexual Orientation Bias Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. In 2010, the National LGBT Bar Association named him one of the Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40.

Empower yourself, your child, your family members and community by learning this important information.