Introduction
On November 5, 2012, CR-CL hosted its Fall Colloquium, “Transgender People, Intimate Partner Abuse, and the Legal System.” The event delved into the structural, institutional, and cultural challenges of addressing intimate partner violence in the transgender community, as discussed in the article by Professor Leigh Goodmark of the University of Baltimore School of Law, published in CR-CL Volume 48. The event featured a panel discussion with noted transgender advocates and activists including M. Dru Levasseur (Transgender Rights Attorney for Lambda Legal) and Terra Slavin (Lead Staff Attorney at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center). Professor Janet Halley, Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, served as moderator of the event.
You can read Professor Goodmark’s article by clicking here.
Participants
Leigh Goodmark
Professor Goodmark teaches at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Prior to joining the faculty, she directed the Children and Domestic Violence Project at the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law. She previously taught in the Families and the Law Clinic at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. Professor Goodmark graduated from Stanford Law School and clerked for the Hon. Robert G. Doumar of the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia.
M. Dru Levasseur
M. Dru Levasseur is the Transgender Rights Attorney for Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV. Levasseur focuses his work on impact litigation, advocacy and community education to advance the civil rights of transgender people nationwide.
Terra Slavin
Terra Slavin is a Lead Staff Attorney at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Legal Services Department and the Project Manager of its Domestic Violence Legal Advocacy Project. Slavin represents the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs on the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, the main coalition of national service providers working to re-authorize VAWA and ensure that it fully protects all survivors.
Janet Halley
Professor Janet Halley is the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Before teaching here, she was Professor of Law at Stanford Law School (1991-2000) and Assistant Professor of English at Hamilton College (1980-85). Professor Halley recently authored the book, Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism. In 2012, she received the James Boyd White Award, which recognizes professors who have demonstrated a distinguished body of work from a “humanistic” perspective.