Legally Queer

06.15.20 — To spark debate, conversation and intersectional advocacy to advance the cause of LGBTQ liberation, Professor Ari Ezra Waldman has launched Legally Queer, an LGBTQ legal education project on social media that includes daily posts about a case, decision, law (or law-related event) related to the LGBTQ community that took place on that date in history. An archive of the daily posts can also be viewed at medium.com/@ariezrawaldman. 

“I want to highlight how courts and the law matter,” says Waldman, a leading authority on law, technology and the LGBTQ community. “Voting for people who will appoint progressive judges matters. We may care about the Supreme Court, but too few of us vote like our future depends on it. And too few vote like the appointments to appeals, district and state and local courts matter, even though the judiciary can make or break the future of marginalized populations who depend on the law for protection.”

Among the topics Waldman is tackling are hate crimes, privacy, prisons, qualified immunity, harassment, religion exemptions, education, the military, public accommodations laws, free speech, transgender rights, immigration and asylum, pornography, HIV/AIDS, employment discrimination, sex and sexual conduct, family, adoption, surrogacy, custody and marriage.

Ari Waldman“The future of legal activism and advocacy is intersectional, and this project will be progressive, unabashedly anti-racist and cognizant of our need to be active allies in the quest for liberation. This will call out conservative and Republican homophobia, hate and hypocrisy,” Waldman says. “But it’s also educative. It will highlight cases well beyond the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts to cases at the state and local level that impact people’s lives. Without progressive judges, we wouldn’t have the rights we have today, and those rights are under attack by an increasingly rabid anti-LGBTQ, anti-woman, anti-equality federal judiciary. Through education and engagement, I hope Legally Queer will be a catalyst for change.”

About Northeastern University School of Law

The nation’s leader in experiential legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law offers the longest-running, most extensive experience-based legal education program in the country and is a national leader in legal education reform. Founded with cooperative legal education as the cornerstone of its program, Northeastern guarantees its students unparalleled practical legal work experiences. All students participate in full-time legal placements, and can choose from the more than 1,500 employers worldwide participating in the school’s signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. Northeastern University School of Law blends theory and practice, providing students with a unique set of skills and experience to successfully practice law.

For more information, contact d.feldman@northeastern.edu.