Nearly 20 years ago, as a gay immigration attorney and a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA), Daniel L. Weiss wondered why New Jersey did not have the kind of professional associations for gay and lesbian attorneys that he saw in metropolitan areas in the Northeast.
Weiss, now a sitting superior court judge in Monmouth County, said although he didn’t know of many attorneys like him at the Association, he believed the time was right to form a group for professional networking, camaraderie and advocacy. In 2003, with the help of Laraine E. Schwartz, a lesbian immigration attorney, they approached Karol Corbin Walker, the first African American president of the NJSBA, with the idea of starting a committee for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
“To this day, I remain extremely grateful to the very sincere and warm reception she gave to the idea of an LGBT rights committee being started. She gave me all the resources of the Association,” Weiss said.
He placed an ad in the newspaper New Jersey Lawyer that drew a handful of attorneys to the first meeting.
“It was clear we were onto something that was filling a void within the state bar,” Weiss said. “We were coming out of the AIDS era, the horrible era of the mid to late 80s and 90s, and there were still a huge number of colleagues that were closeted. Many people have told me that from the inception the section helped them come out of the closet.”
Reflecting on the section’s history, Weiss said what he is most proud of is “bringing so many people together, including those who are not members of our section and who haven’t been exposed to many of the issues.”
Schwartz said Weiss’s timing to form an LGBT committee was prescient, as marriage equality and other justice issues for the LGBT community were gathering national and international momentum. The group eventually swelled in its ranks and became a section.
“The LGBT community needed to come together to form a cohesive group with a voice,” Schwartz said.
In its early years, it was active in gaining marriage equality in New Jersey, although Schwartz recalls that not all of the members were initially behind it. But members recognized the committee fulfilled an important function of not only bringing together like-minded lawyers, but also putting “forward laws to help us in terms of equality on every level,” she said.
In 2006, through the section’s efforts, the NJSBA argued as an amicus in Lewis v. Harris, which challenged New Jersey’s ban on same-sex marriage. Although the NJSBA did not initially take a position on marriage, it documented all of the problems with the Domestic Partnership Act, noting a different solution was necessary. After NJSBA members tried to address their clients’ needs through the legislative creation of civil unions, the NJSBA then concluded in a subsequent court filing that “no other remedy will suffice except the immediate and full provision of marriage equality,” and that only marriage was equal to marriage. In 2013, marriage equality became the law in New Jersey.
“The NJSBA has been a great advocate for LGBT equality since 2007, and in 2011 came out in strong support of New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights,” said former NJSBA President Thomas H. Prol, who was active on both issues and with the section since its inception.
Because the section is under the NJSBA, it benefits from the force of the Association’s weight, expertise and credibility, Prol said. The section also serves as a vital professional lifeline for some attorneys, he said.
“For some people practicing in very provincial parts of the state, there is a lot of judgment and misunderstanding, and it’s not easy to be gay and open and to try to run a business. The section gave them a safe space to let their hair down and be themselves. It gave them the space they were going to be OK and they had a resource to fall back on,” Prol said.
That’s what the section provided Robyn Gigl, who joined the group in 2009, when she transitioned to live in accordance with her gender identity.
“I joined because I wanted to be with people who would be comfortable with me and accepting of me,” said Gigl, a former chair of the section.
Later, as she grew more confident, she began to speak about employment law issues for LGBT individuals and cultural competency issues, such as terminology used when referring to members of the LGBT community. She said being part of the section has been a learning experience, professionally and personally.
“There is still a lot of work to be done on educating and training. Laws can change, but you have to impact people’s hearts and minds and, obviously, this country has a long way to go,” she said.
Since the section’s formation, there have been stunning societal and legal changes that have resulted in victories for gay and transgender rights. In 2015, marriage between same-sex couples became legal, and this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gay, bisexual and transgender workers are protected under the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination.
As LGBT civil rights have changed, so, too, has the section.
“Over time, the section has grown and addressed the issues, concerns and needs of its membership,” said Arielle Adler, current chair of the LGBT Rights Section. “But there is always more work to do.”