Posts Tagged ‘ LGBT ’

Are you Gay Enough to Play Ball? Prove it

November 29th, 2011. By AbiK

Sexual preference has long been a hot-button discrimination topic in the courts. Only typically, it tends to be a straight v. gay/bi/lesbian/transgender type of situation. Not a intra-LGBT thing. They’re supposed to all be on the same team, right? Which is why this latest lawsuit settlement makes you take pause.

Seems there was a lawsuit filed by three gay softballers after they were disqualified from a softball competition—the 2008 Gay Softball World Series (sidenote: the New York Times ran a priceless headline on the story: “Three Straights and You’re Out in Gay Softball League“)

Why? Because the men were thought to be too—don’t utter the word!—heterosexual. And, as the name of the Gay Softball World Series denotes, one must be gay—and gay enough—to play ball. Not hetero. Not even bi.

So the men—who claim to be varying degrees of gay—filed a discrimination lawsuit against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance and sought not only to have their team’s second place standing in the Series restored, but also each sought $75,000 in damages for emotional distress.

The whole thing raises some interesting questions. For one, it puts the honor system of labelling oneself as “gay” in question. Well, is he or isn’t he? How can we be sure? In other amateur sports it’s common to self-declare your skill level—and you may indeed be challenged on that if, say, you declare yourself to be a much less-skilled player merely to boost your W-L ratio. But self-declaration in such instances is about the obvious—it’s about skill; and skill as such is fairly conspicuous.

But your level of gayness? That’s a behind-closed-doors type of thing—at least as far as proof is concerned.

It also presents a pretty ugly side of discrimination—”it’s not ok to treat me differently because I’m gay, but since you’re only half-gay (aka, “bi”), well, that’s different”. Uh-huh.

At the time of the 2008 Gay Softball World Series, there had been a “straight cap” that limited the number of heterosexual players a team could have to two—otherwise you had to be gay, as in 100% gay. (A bit odd that hetero’s were allowed at all, no?) However, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance has since changed how it defines “gay”. Gay now includes bisexual and transgender people. How nice to be included.

The lawsuit, filed by San Francisco team members Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ, has settled according to an NYT update, with the three men receiving an undisclosed sum—and their team will recoup their second place finish.

Tags: Discrimination Lawsuit, Gay Softball World Series, LGBT, North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, Settlement
Posted in Discrimination, lawsuits | No Comments »

Philadelphia Attorney Recognized for Work with Transgender Community

May 3rd, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Philadelphia attorney Natalie Hrubos of Greenberg Traurig…

Attorney Natalie Hrubos: “You can imagine how difficult life is when you are carrying around a piece of identification…that doesn’t match how you look to the world.” 

Attorney Natalie Hrubos

Attorney Natalie Hrubos may be young, but her compassion and understanding of an often marginalized and ostracized group makes her seem wise beyond her years. And her many hours of pro bono work with low-income members of the transgender community, combined with her efforts to educate other lawyers about the legal issues affecting this community, was recently recognized with a Young Lawyers Division community service award from the Philadelphia Bar Association.

“Lawyers don’t necessarily express an interest in working with transgender clients because they don’t understand the community in general or the type of legal issues that are unique to transgender people,” she says. “The result is a lack of legal services available to trans folks,” says Hrubos who is an associate in the Philadelphia office of the international firm of Greenberg Traurig. 

“In fact, the community in general doesn’t understand this community,” adds Hrubos, “it is not just the legal community.” 

At Temple University Law School in Philadelphia, Hrubos was a law student volunteer at the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender free legal clinic in the state. Answering phones, taking messages she learned a lot.

“Many of the calls came from transgender individuals who needed to change their names to better match their identity and their everyday presentation. They were trying to get help with correcting their documents to match their new legal name and correct their gender marker,” says Hrubos. 

By gender marker, she means that little box on your driver’s license or credit card application that asks if you are male or female. 

“You can imagine how difficult life is when you are carrying around a piece of identification, you have to keep showing it and it says a name and gender that doesn’t match how you look to the world.” 

And when that information doesn’t match what people see, it is more than inconvenient—it can be downright dangerous. 

 “I have one client who was presenting ID with his credit card in line at the grocery store and two people behind him followed him out and hit him in the face several times and he came to our meeting with a black eye,” says Hrubos. 

Hrubos is currently working on document changes for a teen that was so badly harassed he had to move to a new high school. “People in his new school don’t know he is transgender. He can’t really present identity documentation so he is always worried, for example, that his car might be pulled over and he’ll be ‘outted’ in front of new his friends.” 

At Greenberg Traurig, Hrubos represents employers in all in aspects of employment and labor law. Gender identity issues, particularly in the workplace are a burgeoning area of law. Aware of that, many employers want to be proactive. “I am in a good position to help and counsel employers on how to address some of the employee relations issues that come within the context of a gender transition at work and to proactively eliminate bias against transgender workers,” says Hrubos. 

In June, Hrubos is doing a continuing legal education workshop for lawyers at the 10th annual Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia. 

“It will provide an issues overview and some information on how to become more ‘culturally competent’,” says Hrubos. 

“There are lot of people who can represent people doing a name change, it is more difficult to find someone who is culturally competent,” Hrubos says.  “I had to learn to be ‘cultural competent’ and that’s why it’s important for me to continue doing it, because there aren’t a lot of other lawyers that can do it.” 

Natalie Hrubos is an associate with the large international law firm of Greenberg Traurig. She represents and counsels management clients in all aspects of labor and employment law. She is also a member of the Legal Advisory Board for the Legal Services Department at the Mazzoni Center, the only agency in Philadelphia that provides direct legal services to low-income LGBT individuals facing legal obstacles related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Tags: Attorney Natalie Hrubos, gender identity, Greenberg Traurig, Lawyers Giving Back, LGBT, Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia lawyer, Transgender
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 1 Comment »