GLAD at Boston Pride
GLAD staff will be tabling at the Boston Pride festival at Boston City Hall. Stop by and say hello!
Blog
One of the privileges of doing family law work in the LGBTQ community is helping families, especially children, become strong advocates for themselves and for their needs. There are so many ways families can love and nurture one another, and sometimes this means accessing legal resources to help grow the support they need and deserve.
This spring, I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with a 16-year-old transgender youth who inspires me through her strength of spirit. She’s come out this year as transgender, and it has been a difficult journey. She’s lucky to be surrounded at school by teachers and fellow students who are passionate about affirming and supporting her for who she is. Unfortunately, her family is struggling to accept and support her transition. When her parents expressed discomfort at her transitioning, she reached out to GLAD to understand her rights and to figure out how to move forward medically.
After she reached out to GLAD, we brainstormed options. One of the resources GLAD provided was the Caregiver Authorization Affidavit, a legal resource that helps youth who are living with an adult other than a parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian. The form allows another adult to make decisions related to education and healthcare. The decision-making is done in concurrence with a parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian, and does not take away parental rights.
For this youth, access to the form means she can create the safe and affirming space she needs to grow. Her school advisor has signed on as her Caregiver, working alongside her parents in the decision-making around transition-related healthcare. With this form, she has begun moving forward in her transition, a huge step toward becoming the person she knows herself to be.
We know creating a safe, welcoming, and affirming environment bolsters the wellbeing of LGBTQ youth. A key part of my and GLAD’s family law work is to educate youth and families across New England and provide them with the tools they need to empower themselves to seek and build those safe spaces. Here at GLAD, we aim to give youth the information they need to know their rights and to give families the encouragement and resources to better understand and support their youth.
Together with youth and the communities they grow up in, we can create a future where every child is safe, affirmed, and cared for, no matter who or where they are.
If you would like more information about rights and resources for transgender youth, contact GLAD Answers, our legal info line, at www.GLADAnswers.org or 800.455.GLAD.
Blog
On November 6th, Massachusetts will be the first state in the country forced to defend basic protections for transgender people at the ballot box. And we are going to do it.
GLAD was founded 40 years ago to stop discrimination against our community, and with your support we’ve fought for decades to win comprehensive protections for every member of our LGBTQ family. We aren’t about to turn the clock back now.
That’s why GLAD is a leading member of Freedom for All Massachusetts, the broad coalition working to uphold basic, fair protections for transgender people in public spaces like restaurants, retail shops and medical offices.
We know how to defend equality. We did it a decade ago when our marriage victory was under attack, and together we are going to do it again. It’s too important not to.
But it is going to take every single one of us – thousands of fair-minded people like you in every region of our Commonwealth uniting to keep discrimination out of Massachusetts.
Blog
Guest bloggers Rey and Tanairi help us celebrate International Family Equality Day today by sharing their story to help ensure all children’s relationships to their families are protected, no matter how those families are formed.
When our daughter was born just over a month ago, it was one of the happiest days of our lives. But it was also one of the scariest.
Like all parents, we’d done our best to make sure she would have all the support and protection she’d need when she arrived. Since we live in Massachusetts and are not married, that included signing a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage (VAP) form to ensure we both had full, legal relationships as her parents.
Then we went into labor. And from our hospital bed we were told that the hospital birth registrar refused us access to the VAP form – so that Rey would not be listed on our daughter’s birth certificate.
We were scared for our family’s future. So we called GLAD.
Senior Staff Attorney Polly Crozier answered our call for help. Polly had been working with us to guide us through the legal landscape as a never-married, expectant same-gender couple. She had explained that as a result of GLAD’s win for parents like us at the MA Supreme Judicial Court in 2016, we had a right to access the VAP form, and she worked in advance to make sure that vital records would accept our form.
Now, while we were in our hospital room adjusting to our first hours as parents, Polly was fighting once again to ensure our family would have access to protections on an equal basis to different-gender parents. And she succeeded. With GLAD’s help that afternoon, we were the first same-gender couple in Massachusetts to establish our parentage in the hospital through a VAP.
So many families around the country still don’t have those same protections or access to help. That’s why GLAD keeps fighting and standing up for the rights of LGBTQ families everywhere, no matter how they’re formed.
Our child was born four weeks ago, surrounded by loving family and our closest friends. Since that day in the hospital when we were both able to sign the VAP form, we are both secured as her legal parents. She will grow up knowing both her parents will always be there to give her the love, support, and stability she needs and deserves.
We’re fortunate to live in Massachusetts where, thanks to GLAD, the law recognizes unmarried, non-biological parents so that families like ours are protected. And Polly, and GLAD, are working hard to ensure the Massachusetts VAP form is updated to be fully inclusive and reflective of LGBTQ families like ours, so that no one ever faces what we did in the hospital again.
So many families around the country still don’t have those same protections or access to help. That’s why GLAD keeps fighting and standing up for the rights of LGBTQ families everywhere, no matter how they’re formed.
GLAD believes that all parents – regardless of their marital status – should be able to create and secure their families. If you are encountering barriers to establishing your legal parentage, please call GLAD Answers, our legal information line, at 800-455-GLAD or visit www.GLADAnswers.org.
News
In a bipartisan 14-10 vote, the New Hampshire Senate today passed HB 1319, a bill that will provide explicit comprehensive nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in employment, housing, and public spaces. The House passed HB 1319 in March by a strong bipartisan vote and the bill now goes to Governor Sununu for his signature. Once the bill is signed into law, New Hampshire will join 18 other states, including every state in New England, in providing comprehensive protections for transgender people.
Janson Wu, Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), one of the lead partners in the Freedom New Hampshire Coalition advocating to pass the bill, made the following statement:
Today, the New Hampshire Senate voted to affirm the dignity and humanity of transgender Granite Staters, and to ensure they have an equal opportunity to live and work free from discrimination. For more than a decade, transgender people across the state – along with family, friends, and freedom-loving allies – have spoken out, shared their stories, and led the fight to secure these critical protections. GLAD has been proud to be a partner in that work every step of the way.
We are grateful to the many senators and representatives, including HB 1319’s lead sponsor Rep. Ed Butler, who voted to make their state a safer and more just place for everyone. New Hampshire’s leadership today sets an example for the nation of the incredible progress bipartisan cooperation can achieve.
At a time when the rights of transgender people are under attack from the Trump-Pence administration on every front – from schools, to health care, to military service – this resounding victory in New Hampshire shows clearly that support for equality is not a partisan issue but a basic matter of American fairness. Voters in neighboring Massachusetts will soon have an opportunity to echo that fact, as the spotlight on transgender equality moves to the fight to protect the Bay State’s public accommodation nondiscrimination law at the ballot this November.
All Granite Staters can hold their heads high today, knowing that New Hampshire is truly embracing its ideals of freedom for all, and taking its place as a leader in the growing movement to secure equality across the nation.
Leading partners in the Freedom New Hampshire coalition fighting for HB 1319 include GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Freedom for All Americans, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire (ACLU-NH), Human Rights Campaign, Transgender New Hampshire, and Rights and Democracy New Hampshire.
Blog
News
In a unanimous 9-0 vote, the Framingham Public Schools Committee adopted this week a groundbreaking school policy ensuring transgender students are fully included in athletics. GLAD Senior Staff Attorney Patience Crozier issued the following statement:
GLAD applauds the Framingham school committee for its unanimous approval of this policy to ensure the full inclusion of transgender students in athletics, and congratulates the local parents, students and other community members who worked for its adoption.
Given the vital role that athletics play in student development, including social and emotional development, wellness, and development of key life skills like teamwork and collaboration, it is critical for transgender students to be fully included in this part of school life.
We know that creating an atmosphere where all students, including transgender students, are included results in a positive learning environment for everyone, and a key component of this policy is education. We trust Framingham will comprehensively train all coaches, captains and student athletes on this policy so that the true promise of inclusion is reached.
With this groundbreaking policy, Framingham is addressing head on an important area of education that is not often addressed. This policy makes Framingham a leader in Massachusetts and we hope this will serve as a model for the entire state.
Transgender Woman in Men’s Prison Seeks Preliminary Relief in Doe v. MA Dept. of Correction
(BOSTON, MA) Lawyers for a transgender woman incarcerated in a Massachusetts men’s prison filed a motion for preliminary injunction on Friday, seeking her immediate transfer to a women’s facility. The case, Jane Doe v. Massachusetts Department of Correction, was first filed by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Prisoners’ Legal Services, and Goodwin Procter LLP in October 2017 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Jane Doe has suffered extreme psychological harm and is at daily risk for physical and sexual violence and harassment as a woman improperly housed in a men’s prison. Ms. Doe is regularly subjected to strip searches and groping by male correctional officers at MCI-Norfolk. She is forced to shower in view of male prisoners who harass her. Correctional officers and other staff at the facility refuse to address or refer to her using her correct name and female pronouns.
“Incarcerating a transgender woman in a men’s prison makes no sense. Being in prison is the sentence for her crime. She should not be doubly punished or uniquely subjected to sexual harassment and violence just for being transgender,” said Jennifer L. Levi, director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project. “The Department of Correction refuses to acknowledge the reality of who our plaintiff is, a woman, despite the fact that she transitioned nearly 40 years ago.”
Doe was diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria and underwent gender transition as a teenager. She is currently serving a sentence for a non-violent drug offense.
In addition to the motion for preliminary injunction, Ms. Doe’s attorneys have also filed an opposition to the Department of Correction’s motion to dismiss her case. More information on Doe v. Massachusetts Department of Correction can be found at this link.
Media contact: Carisa Cunningham, (617) 447-6500, carisa.cunningham@gmail.com
Bridging the Gap: HIV and Racial Equity
Film Screening: Solitary Voices
Join us for a screening of Solitary Voices — a documentary sharing the stories of three former prisoners who survived solitary confinement in Massachusetts prisons — followed by a panel of people impacted by solitary confinement and advocates working to end the practice in Massachusetts. This event is presented by Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement (MASC).
The venue, United First Parish Church, is located near the Quincy Center Red Line stop. Free on-street parking is available.
Refreshments provided.
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