The Campaign for Southern Equality will offer a series of legal workshops on LGBTQ rights starting on January 12th in Jackson and continuing across Mississippi. These clinics are free and open to the public.
Led by volunteer attorneys and transgender leaders, each clinic will cover issues such as name changes for transgender individuals, health care power of attorney documents for LGBTQ youth, how to obtain a passport for gender marker changes and second parent adoptions to help protect LGBTQ families. Participants can also access resource guides and apply for need-based stipends to assist with legal fees.
The schedule for the legal workshops is:
- January 12th – Jackson, Mississippi
- January 13th – Pass Christian, Mississippi
- January 14th – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
- January 16th – Oxford, Mississippi
Mississippi is home to 60,000 LGBT adults and an estimated 11,400 transgender youth and adults, according to 2016 data published by the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law. The state is also home to 3,500 same-sex couples, 29 percent of whom are raising children—the highest rate in the nation.
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, says “LGBTQ people live in every town across Mississippi, but too often face barriers to accessing clear information, resources and support to protect their rights. There are important steps that LGBTQ people can take immediately – like completing the name change process, or adoption – to protect our rights and our families proactively.”
The Campaign for Southern Equality has worked in Mississippi since 2012, offering legal clinics and participating in federal litigation to challenge anti-LGBT laws. The Campaign for Southern Equality is currently a plaintiff in Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant (CSE III), along with Rev. Dr. Susan Hrostowski. This active federal lawsuit challenges Mississippi’s HB 1523, an extreme anti-LGBT law, and argues that HB 1523, by protecting three specific religious beliefs above all others, is unprecedented and violates the First Amendment’s guarantee that government cannot “establish” a religion. The law was struck down on June 30 and is now under appeal at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Campaign for Southern Equality has challenged anti-LGBTQ laws in Mississippi twice before. Earlier this year, attorneys Roberta Kaplan and Rob McDuff successfully challenged Mississippi’s ban on adoption by same-sex couples, the last of its kind in the entire United States, in Campaign for Southern Equality v. Mississippi Department of Human Services. And before that, in 2014, Kaplan and McDuff represented the Campaign for Southern Equality in successfully challenging Mississippi’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples in Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant I.
Based in Asheville, North Carolina, the Campaign for Southern Equality is a non-profit organization that empowers LGBTQ individuals and families across the South and advocates for full legal equality for all.
