News

A federal court struck down Alabama’s unconstitutional policy of explicitly requiring surgery before issuing transgender people an accurate driver’s license. TLDEF senior counsel Gabriel Arkles served as lead counsel on the matter.

TLDEF with partners Garden State Equality and Lowenstein Sandler secure removal of name change publication requirement through an amended rule as decided by New Jersey Supreme Court. At a time when transgender people are experiencing increased rates of poverty and unemployment, court and publication fees can be insurmountable barriers to accessing affirming and life-saving identity documents. Removing these requirements makes the process and the courts more accessible.

TLDEF welcomes nationally-recognized transgender civil rights attorney, Gabriel Arkles, as Senior Counsel. Arkles joins TLDEF as a career activist, advocate, and law professor. Previously, Arkles was a Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU, Staff Attorney at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and in academia at the New York University School of Law and Northeastern School of Law.

Transgender people experience higher rates of discrimination and harassment in employment and in public accommodations which can be addressed and overcome through workplace diversity trainings for employees. Trump's Executive Order (EO) 13950 restricts diversity and inclusion trainings by threatening to cut federal grant funding to employers who provide such trainings. However, imposing viewpoint- or values-based restrictions as a condition to receive federal funding violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause. TLDEF submitted comments opposing EO 13950 for those reasons.