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Toward a More Perfect Union: The LGBTQ Community and the Constitution

Join ACS and HRC for an afternoon symposium addressing the relationship between the LGBTQ community, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has played an essential role in advancing LGBTQ rights, from striking down state sodomy laws as unconstitutional to recognizing the rights of opposite-sex couples to marry and establishing marriage equality nationwide. However, LGBTQ people have also had their rights denied at the Supreme Court, and the loss of Justice Kennedy may place certain unresolved legal rights in jeopardy. In the coming years, the Supreme Court will be asked to decide cases that will have a critical impact on LGBTQ people, including:

• Whether nondiscrimination laws include protections for LGBTQ people.
• Whether individuals and organizations have a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people when receiving taxpayer dollars.
• Whether LGBTQ people and families can be turned away from businesses open to the general public.
• Whether qualified transgender people can be excluded from serving in the military.

We need a Justice who recognizes LGBTQ people’s fundamental rights and basic equality. Americans also need a Supreme Court Justice who is fair-minded, committed to impartial judgments and policies based upon fact—not ideology. This symposium will examine the current state of the law and what is at stake in the future.

Our agenda and confirmed speakers include:

1:30 Welcome

• Caroline Fredrickson, President of ACS
• JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President, Policy and Political Affairs, HRC

1:45 Due Process, Privacy, and LGBTQ Rights

• Paul Smith, Campaign Legal Center (Confirmed)
• Shannon Minter, National Center for Lesbian Rights (Confirmed)
• Nancy J. Knauer, Temple University Beasley School of Law (Confirmed)

2:30 Equal Protection: Marriage Equality and Beyond

• Sharon McGowan, Lambda Legal (Confirmed)
• Ria Tabacco Mar, American Civil Liberties Union (Confirmed)
• Steve Sanders, Indiana University Maurer School of Law (Confirmed)

3:30 What’s at Stake?

• Katie Eyer, Rutgers Law (Confirmed)
• Harper Jean Tobin, National Center for Transgender Equality (Confirmed)
• Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights Campaign (Confirmed)
• Praveen Fernandes, Constitutional Accountability Center (Confirmed)