june 21.2002
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mews
awyers might be the ongoing butt of
nasty jokes, hut thanks to the work of
Lambda Legal— a national organiza
tion dedicated to advancing the civil
Lambda attorney
rights of sexual minorities and people
with HIV/AIDS— someday that might by be Jim a Radosta
thing of the past.
Myron Quon serves as deputy director of its
Los Angeles-based Western Regional Office,
which covers Oregon, Washington, Alaska,
Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada,
New Mexico and Utah. He focuses particular
attention on Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander and
rural communities and reaches out to clergy as
part of Lambda’s Marriage Project.
During a recent visit to Portland, Quon
spoke with Just Out about the current court
climate. Here are some excerpts from the
conversation:
L aying D own
L
Jim Radosta: Are any issues on the horizon
that Lambda is keeping an eye on?
Myron Quon: In California there’s this
grandparent custody visitation case going on
where there are no lesbian moms involved. But
that case we’re working on because we’re wor
ried that the California Supreme Court may
say the wrong thing— parents have total say
over what can he done with their kids, end of
discussion.
Obviously, we don’t want that as an answer,
because there are so many gay dads and lesbian
moms out there, usually one of whom if you’re
lucky is either biologically related or has done
an adoption, hut the other one hasn’t quite got
ten to that stage yet. They’ve been together for
four or five years and then all of a sudden they
break up.
And the court will say: “So sad, too bad.
Since you didn’t do anything legal, you’re a
stranger to your child in the eyes of the law.” It
doesn’t make any sense, hut it’s something we’re
seeing around the country unfortunately.
JR : How does Lambda decide whether to
take on a case?
M Q: In general, we pick it up if it’s an appel
late court decision. If it’s just at trial level— like
before a family court judge or a family court
mediator— we would hope that the parties can
resolve it immediately on their own and we
won’t have to get involved.
JR : Are you overwhelmed with requests
for help? Do you take on some cases that you
know you have little chance of winning but
that are worth the visibility?
MQ: We definitely get lots of requests for
assistance. Whenever we do take a case it has to
he breaking new ground. We try to find the one
case that’ll talk about a certain legal issue that
the
discusses current court climate
JR : What would you say is Lambda’s
biggest success story?
M Q : There definitely are some trends.
O ne is the survivorship issue, especially post-
9/11. Lambda has been highly involved in that
issue. I think that’s one area where— because
of the tragedy, because of the nature of the
harm, because of the complete injustice that
people who were living together...and yet
either private or government agencies are try
ing to treat them as strangers again and give
their compensation to blood family members
who may he totally anti-gay and estranged
from the victim— we have made a lot of
headway in that, and I think that’s really
encouraging.
Myron Quon sees the tide slowly turning in courtrooms across the country
I think also encouraging is our work in rela
tionship recognition. It’s still very difficult to
woman or a feminine man is beat up or harassed
we’ve established is really important.
get civil unions passed in any state, but
or discriminated against...is it because the per
In terms of the other aspect, yeah, we often
because of all this litigation around the coun
son has a same-gender partner or is it because
take on cases for public education. We repre
try, when state legislators say, “We want to
the person is not conforming to society’s norms
sented Brandon Teena’s mom in her lawsuit
have
a civil unions bill in our state,” people
of gender and sex? It could be a mix of both, it
against Richardson County [Neb.] for their fail
don’t look at them like, “W h at’s a civil
could be one, I don’t know.
ure and neglect of protecting her child from all
union?” Instead it’s more like, “No, we oppose
But
in
terms
of
sexual
orientation
discrimi
sorts of abuse. It’s not really creating new law,
it because it’s too much like marriage.”
nation in Oregon, you have the Tanner [vs.
because it’s essentially tort action trying to say
And then the spillover
Oregon Health Sciences
who’s to blame and is there blame.
Universityl decision. You
Whenever we do take a case it effect is it’s really a lot eas
The sheriff’s department was trying to say,
ier now...for us to get
also can potentially rely
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” which is not
has
to
be
breaking
new
ground.
domestic
partner registries
upon the federal Equal
true. There was great public education value to
passed, and then the fol
Protection Clause [of the
it, talking about...hate crimes, about what
We try to find the one case
lowing year— following
14th
Amendment
to
the
gender-nonconforming and transgender people
that'll
talk
about
a
certain
legal
the California example—
U .S. Constitution], and
face, law enforcement practices that are unfair
giving it some benefits to
that’s really it.
to LG BT people.
issue that we've established is government employees.
You clearly cannot
And the following year
rely upon Title VII [of the
J R : Right now there’s a big push to distin
really important."
i<
a
finally giving some true
Civil Rights Act of 1964].
guish between sexual orientation and gender
teeth to the domestic
The weird thing is that
identity, which obviously is important to trans
partnership
registry.
the law looks at transgen
people. But does this end up creating problems
And the last area I guess is probably the safe
der people differently. Sex stereotyping and dis
in which sexual orientation protection doesn’t
schools
issue, both in terms of legislation we pass
crimination
against
people
who
are
non-gender-
apply to them?
around the country as well as school administra
conforming may he protected by Title VII.
M Q: That’s an interesting question. The
tors taking much more seriously name calling
answer is, unfortunately, yes. The law currently
and anti-gay...harassment. It seems like because
JR : Can you think of any recent setbacks
does not see sexual orientation and gender iden
of the education and teachers’ rights litigation
that have been especially disappointing for
tity as being the same.
we’ve done in the mid- to late ’9 0 s ...it's really
Lambda?
We recognize that sexual orientation, gender
helped the administrators. I think the climate is
M Q: Probably the Boy Scouts decision. That
identity and gender diversity are related in terms
very different from back then. J H
was very crushing to lose.
of discrimination that people face. If a hutch
MyrOll Quon
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That decision was, essentially, the Boy
Scouts of America is an anti-gay discriminatory
agency, and they can do that if they want to do
it. That was the Supreme Court’s ruling.
And it’s been quite amazing.. .to see the out
pouring of rage by our nongay allies, by straight
parents who are so pissed off at the Boy Scouts
that they’re yanking their kids out of the pro
gram, cities and counties and even police
departments and other agencies from around
the country refusing to associate with the Boy
Scouts of America and doing more stuff
w ith.. .other youth programs.
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