Transgender rights, same sex marriage, family law, schools, healthcare, and the First Amendment were the focus of the October 29 Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy program on “Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights.”
Mary Bonauto, senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), moderated the program with two of her colleagues from GLAD, Polly Crozier ’02, director of family advocacy, and Chris Erchull, senior staff attorney. Bonauto is the legal architect of numerous landmark cases in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, including both Goodridge v. Department of Public Health and Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage initially in Massachusetts and then nationwide. Bonauto argued both cases in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the United States Supreme Court, respectively.
Erchull opened by highlighting the current challenge to Florida’s ban on medical care for transgender adolescents (a ban that has been similarly imposed in half the states). The ban blocks access to medical care on the basis of gender identity which LGBTQ advocates argue is sex-based discrimination and therefore unconstitutional on the basis of equal protection.
Those medical bans will be the subject of an argument being heard this term at the US Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti. “We are likely to see a definitive answer to this question, and that is going to impact a host of other cases that we are involved in,” Erchull said. “All these areas where state governments are imposing their views about what rights transgender individuals should have, will be subject to heightened scrutiny,” he predicted.
“If there’s a topic in the LGBTQ rights community, we likely have an opinion on it.”
Polly Crozier ’02, director of family advocacy at GLAD
Bans on healthcare are just a sampling of the cases that GLAD handles. “If there’s a topic in the LGBTQ rights community, we likely have an opinion on it,” remarked Crozier. She brings her expertise in family law, legislation, policy work, and public education to GLAD, broadening the legal reach beyond LGBTQ issues into basic human rights.
For example, after the Supreme Court’s abortion decision, Dobbs v. Jackson, Crozier said that questions started flooding into GLAD regarding family law and healthcare, including asking how states would be able to protect access to medical care such as gender affirming treatments. When passions ignite, people want to move quickly, but Crozier cautioned against hasty decisions: “I was there to say, let’s slow down …and figure out how to create a family law system that protects a child no matter how [that child] is born.” Crozier immediately began to work on drafting “shield laws” that protect access to medical care from a dual perspective: reproductive rights and transgender rights, emphasizing that both rights focus on an individual’s ability to make decisions about one’s own body.
Shield laws, as explained by Crozier, touch on myriad areas of law, including criminal, civil, privacy, and the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause. Crafting legislation requires a keen eye to ensure that the law does good and not harm, and that unintended consequences are avoided. After encouraging the law students present to “go into the Legislature!” Crozier proudly shared that Massachusetts was the first state to successfully enact shield laws affecting both reproductive and transgender rights, and that between July of 2022 and the present, sixteen states now have shield laws protecting access to healthcare.
Protecting children and families were additional topics of concern. “One thing GLAD enabled me to do,” Crozier said, “was to take a step back and think, what does protecting our families look like in this system?” Crozier pointed to the Uniform Parentage Act of 2017 which Bonauto first championed in Maine, and which, after several years of effort, finally passed in Massachusetts in 2024. Among the many issues with which Crozier is engaged, she works to provide safe homes for children, “supporting states in making sure that every child is protected.”
The “great thing about marriage, it’s optional, it’s not a mandate, but you need the freedom to marry … or your equal citizenship is not being respected.”
Mary Bonauto, senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLAD
In introducing the subject of same-sex marriage, Bonauto touched on her own experience protecting families. “Family is important to LGBTQ people, like everyone else,” she said. “We were deemed to be toxic, dangerous to children. Supposedly, gay people had zero interest in committed relationships.” Bonauto remarked that the “great thing about marriage, it’s optional, it’s not a mandate, but you need the freedom to marry … or your equal citizenship is not being respected.”
Bonauto talked about the Vermont case that permitted civil unions, followed by the November, 2003, historic decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which ruled, in a 4-3 decision, that same-sex marriage was allowed as a “matter of liberty and equality under the State Constitution.” After the successful challenge to the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the US Supreme Court, Bonauto argued Obergefell, the 2015 landmark case that provided a constitutional right to marry under both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. “Due process and equal protection—not a shocker,” Bonauto commented. In her view, marriage is simple, and Obergefell was seamlessly incorporated in communities across the country. “It’s more people marrying. Governments, licensing authorities, businesses, employers, they know how to deal with this. Marriage remains very popular in public opinion.”
When asked whether Obergefell would be overturned, Bonauto said she could not imagine that possibility. “It would be outrageous, something that has worked so well to provide stability and security for families and kids and seamlessly integrated into society. Why would you do that? Why would you disrupt that?” But, she added, “if they do, we’re going to be ready.”
The panelists went on to discuss the impact of school environments on children, parents, and LGBTQ+ conversations. Crozier was quick to emphasize that it is not an “us versus them” argument when dealing with how to protect and care for children. “We’re resisting the framing out there of parents’ rights versus kids’ [rights]. It’s an ecosystem where schools, parents, and children together are all part of a successful school experience and all need to be in community with each other,” she said.
“When you create a positive school environment, then all students are more likely to thrive.”
Chris Erchull, senior staff attorney at GLAD
All three panelists discussed cases around the country, including the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the New Hampshire Supreme Court, addressing arguments by parents that their constitutional rights should be expanded to control how schools handle the needs of LGBTQ students. Crozier acknowledged that children can’t learn at school if they don’t feel safe, but also recognized that schools are complicated and parents want and need to be involved. Erchull chimed in, adding that “when you create a positive school environment, then all students are more likely to thrive.”
Bonauto, Crozier, and Erchull remained cautiously optimistic about the future, evoking confidence that GLAD will be ready if necessary to take on challenges to rights that have been hard won over the past several years.
Photograph by Reba Saldanha