Pro Bono Newsletter

Pro Bono Pride: Overview of Recent Advocacy Efforts on Behalf of the LGBTQ+ Community

June 2023

As we close out Pride Month 2023, we wanted to take a moment to reflect and celebrate the work that we have done together for the LGBTQ+ community over the last few years. We also want to recognize the acute challenges facing this community at this moment in time and pledge our continued support and activism in support of their rights. Gibson Dunn has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community, including through our pro bono practice. We have represented LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers; helped transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming clients obtain name and gender marker changes; and partnered with nonprofits and other organizations defending LGBTQ+ rights around the world.

Included below are a few of the Firm’s recent pro bono matters for members of the LGBTQ+ community. We are proud to work on these matters and are committed to continuing this important work in the years to come, particularly as LGBTQ+ individuals face increasing threats to their rights and safety. As always, we welcome any suggestions about other ways to get involved in additional pro bono efforts in this space.

We also have included photos from a recent Pro Bono Pride celebration held in Gibson Dunn’s New York office. This celebration focused in particular on the LGBTQ+ Asylum Initiative discussed below, and provided an opportunity to celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of the clients served through that project. As discussed below, over 100 clients have applied for asylum as part of that specific project, resulting in dozens of successful grants of asylum so far. On this evening, we had the opportunity to catch up with many of those clients, celebrate their achievements, and inspire our next class of attorneys and summer associates to join the effort. We also heard from one of our clients, who was kind enough to share his story with us and told us, among other things: “Gibson Dunn has helped change my destiny and I now have an opportunity to live freely in a country which accepts me for who I am and cares about my human rights. This opportunity means the world to me.”

LGBTQ+ Asylum Initiative

One of the Firm’s flagship pro bono initiatives is a partnership with Legal Services NYC, a leading legal aid organization in New York, to assist LGBTQ+ individuals seeking asylum in the United States. Each year, we screen dozens of LGBTQ+ clients for asylum eligibility and take on the cases of those individuals deemed to have a viable asylum claim. In some cases, we pair our asylum representation with assistance obtaining name and gender-marker changes.

Our clients fled incredibly dangerous conditions in their home countries in search of safety and the ability to live authentically. They came to the United States from countries on every continent, including Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Syria, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. Now, they are building new lives in New York. Over the last five years, the Firm has helped dozens of clients obtain asylum. Many have received their green cards, and several will soon be eligible to apply for citizenship. Of course, many other cases remain pending.

One of the many victories coming out of this initiative was a 2022 grant of asylum for a lesbian woman from Kazakhstan who had been a successful musician and performer in her home country before rumors about her sexuality began to swirl. Our client fled to the United States in 2014 and applied affirmatively for asylum in 2015, but was unsuccessful and saw her case referred to immigration court. Gibson Dunn subsequently took over the case, conducting extensive research about the climate for LGBTQ+ people in Kazakhstan, gathering evidence, and preparing our client to testify before the Immigration Judge. After multiple pandemic-related and other delays, the immigration hearing was finally held on April 1, 2022. After the direct and cross-examination of the client concluded, the Immigration Judge issued his decision on the spot, awarding our client asylum and bringing an end to her eight-year journey of seeking status in the United States.

“It has been so inspiring to see the positive change that we have made for so many clients who have been through some of the worst experiences imaginable—and who can now start a new life in this country with legal status and a changed future ahead of them.”

Adam Heintz
Director of Pro Bono Services, LSNYC

The Trevor Project

In 2022, the Firm continued its longstanding partnership with The Trevor Project, the largest LGBTQ+ youth crisis intervention and suicide prevention organization, and the only nationwide organization that offers accredited, free, and confidential phone, instant message, and text messaging crisis intervention services for LGBTQ+ youth.

Last year, for example, we filed an amicus brief on behalf of The Trevor Project, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and American Association of Suicidology, seeking affirmance of a decision that a Washington state statute banning the practice of conversion therapy on minors was constitutional. We set forth evidence that conversion therapy causes significant mental health harm to LGBTQ+ youth, in support of the argument that Washington was well within its rights and duties to protect minors in enacting the conversion therapy ban. For example, a study published by The Trevor Project found that LGBTQ+ youth subjected to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide than LGBTQ+ youth who had not undergone conversion therapy. In September 2022, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order, holding that states may enact laws to protect youth from the harms of conversion therapy.

In previous years, we submitted amicus briefs in an Eleventh Circuit case focused on the ability of transgender youth to use a restroom that corresponds to their gender identity, Second and Ninth Circuit cases regarding transgender students’ ability to participate in sports in a manner consistent with their gender identity, a case in which the Fourth Circuit found that the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX prohibit discrimination against transgender students in the context of school bathrooms, and Eleventh and Fourth Circuit cases regarding ordinances protecting LGBTQ+ young people from conversion therapy, among other cases.

“Over the last year, members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender people and LGBTQ+ youth, have been targeted by campaigns that have resulted in heightened discrimination in employment, housing, family planning, healthcare, and schools, to name a few. My ability to participate in and receive support from the Firm to engage in litigation on behalf of LGBTQ+ rights organizations like The Trevor Project, to research the rights and safety of transgender people in detention facilities, and to provide direct services—fighting obstacles in immigration and asylum, changing identification documents, and filing legal name change applications— feel like liberating acts on both a collective and personal level. I’m grateful for the leadership of lesbian and gay attorney mentors, in addition to the Firm’s allyship and support.”

Bethany Saul
Associate, New York

Transgender Rights

Throughout the United States, incarcerated transgender individuals are routinely mis-gendered and housed with the incorrect population. Not only does this practice place transgender people at enormous physical risk, but the psychological and emotional trauma of incorrect housing in prison cannot be overstated. Transgender inmates are particularly vulnerable while detained. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that nearly 40% of transgender inmates reported sexual assault—ten times the rate at which the general prison population was victimized. State and local departments of corrections’ housing policies and decisions across the country have major implications for the health and safety of transgender inmates. Yet transgender inmates are often in the dark about the very policies in place to protect them. Transgender inmates and their advocates deserve to know how they are supposed to be treated and housed so that they can take appropriate action when these procedures and policies are not followed.

Recognizing the information gap and heightened vulnerability, a global team of Gibson Dunn attorneys worked on a nationwide project to compile policies concerning housing transgender inmates across all 50 states and territories in the United States on behalf of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. Because many policies are shielded from the public on an arbitrary basis, the team submitted public records requests to states and counties for the information, and pursued formal and informal appeals if such requests were denied. The team won all appeals it undertook, including a hard-fought victory in Utah that resulted in a finding by the Utah Department of Corrections adopting the team’s arguments as to why the records should be released. Through their diligent work and creative strategies, the team obtained policies for most states and territories, and created robust, easy-to-use, and comprehensive resources intended for use by transgender inmates, attorneys, and allies. The team is hopeful that enhanced transparency and accessibility of these housing policies will support and empower transgender inmates seeking housing placements that are consistent with their gender identity.

“I am so proud of the work that the Gibson Dunn team did on the LGBTQ+ Bar Association’s Transgender Inmate Resource Project. Through passion, resourcefulness, and resilience, our team was able to navigate Byzantine state departments of correction to secure vital housing policies that transgender inmates (and their advocates) can use to ensure that they are properly housed according to their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth. Gibson Dunn has a long and proud history of defending LGBTQ+ rights. Our team was honored to play our part in this strong and enduring legacy through this important project for the LGBTQ+ Bar Association.”

Sydney Scott
Partner, Houston

Transactional Assistance for LGBTQ+ Community Groups

The Hong Kong office recently began advising a student-led initiative entitled “BeEngayged,” which aims to empower the LGBTQ+ community and advocate for the rights of sexual minorities in Hong Kong by addressing three major problems faced by the LGBTQ+ community: discrimination, lack of knowledge of LGBTQ+ rights, and potential gaps within the existing Hong Kong legislation. The Hong Kong office has provided pro bono assistance on assessing the appropriate legal structure for the initiative “BeEngayged,” to help with formation of the resulting entity.

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