O'Melveny's 2018-2019 Pro Bono Review

O’MELVENY PRO BONO PROGRAM REVIEW 2018- 2019 8 LGBTQ Rights Defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) people is some of O’Melveny’s most meaningful work. The firm represents people facing discrimination, violence, and persecution based on their sexual orientation, and works to challenge laws and restrictions that curtail their liberties. Advocating for Transgender Rights In Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. , O’Melveny filed an amicus brief on behalf of more than 100 national, state, and local groups that support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other gender-based abuse. The case was the first transgender-rights case to reach the US Supreme Court, though the Court later remanded the matter back to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. This case is about G.G., a transgender male student at a Virginia high school. The American Civil Liberties Union argued that the school’s policy excluding G.G. from the men’s restroom was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment and violated Title IX of the US Education Amendments of 1972. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld G.G.’s claim under Title IX. The US Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari and oral argument was scheduled, but later the Court announced that it would not rule in the case, sending it back to the Fourth Circuit. O’Melveny attorneys have been involved in the fight for transgender rights since shortly after the state of North Carolina passed a law, known as H.B. 2, in 2016. The firm responded to a request from the ACLU and Lambda Legal to file an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit in that matter. O’Melveny’s brief in the Gloucester County case counters arguments made by the plaintiff that discrimination is necessary when assigning people to locker rooms and public restrooms to prevent sexual assault and other gender- based violence. O’Melveny argued that discrimination does nothing to reduce incidents of sexual violence; that sexual assault victims often know their perpetrators; that most assaults occur at or near victims’ homes; that no correlation has been shown between non-discrimination ordinances and increased assault or harassment; and that there is not even a single anecdote connecting such ordinances to violence or harassment. To the contrary, it is discrimination that exposes transgender people to harassment and violence, forcing them to use facilities that do not match their identity or expression, and that such discrimination actually emboldens perpetrators. It is that discrimination that O’Melveny will continue to combat on behalf of its clients.