From: Bookgrrl1@aol.com Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 20:04:23 -0400 Subject: Center for Lesbian and Gay Law and Public Policy This article was printed in the May 20th (Monday) edition of Philadelphia's Legal Intelligencer By Shannon P. Duffy Legal Intelligencer Today is the official birthday of a new public interest legal organization -- the Center for Lesbian and Gay Law and Public Policy -- to be celebrated at an afternoon press conference at the Philadelphia Bar Association. Attorney Andrew S. Park, the Center's first executive director, says the organization will fill a heretofore empty niche in state and local politics. ``Gays and lesbians have major and basic civil rights issues and there is no group anywhere in this state that is focused entirely on those issues,'' Park said. ``The closest we come are volunteer groups that work on domestic partnership and marriage issues.'' Park, 33, a former administrative judge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was chosen by an interim board comprised of lawyers, gay political activists as well as representatives from organized labor and the financial community. Since he arrived in Philadelphia from Washington, D.C., a few years ago, Park has had an ever-increasing role in local gay politics, especially among gay and lesbian lawyers. He led a movement to change the name of the gay lawyers group from the Philadelphia Attorneys for Human Rights to one that pulled no punches: GALLOP or the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia. Along with Gina Briggs, a lesbian associate at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, he persuaded the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association to add a voting seat to its board for a GALLOP member. And with his longtime partner, union organizer Mark Smith, Park was closely involved with the formation of the Liberty City Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club which recently held a convention in Philadelphia for gay and lesbian Democratic clubs from around the country. In a recent interview, The Legal Intelligencer spoke with Park and two prominent members of the Center's interim board -- Larry Frankel, the recently named executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Dabney Miller, the director of programs and development at the Women's Law Project. In its first year, Park said the Center will have three main projects in the works. The Partners Project will focus on the hottest issue in gay and lesbian law these days -- the debate over the right of ``same-sex couples'' to marry. While the Center may ultimately file one or more lawsuits, Park said the first objective will be education and providing counseling to gayt and lesbian couples. ``Although the marriage cases will be very important -- and we'd love to be involved in a big, landmark case -- it really isn't relevant to most couple's lives right now. They have issues they need advice on immediately and because of their non-married status, the answers aren't always obvious,'' Park said. A main goal of the Partners Project will be to produce a handbook explaining couple's rights under Pennsylvania law including model forms for wills, powers of attorney, living together agreements, and addresing the risk of palimony and property suits. The Work Pride Project will focus on issues of discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace, including lobbying for state and local laws against discrimination and monitoring the agencies charged with enforcing the laws already on the books. Frankel, who has worked as the ACLU's legislative director since 1992, said he was happy to see the Center arrive on the scene to provide help in lobbying Harrisburg's lawmakers. ``Certainly the ACLU has worked on gay and lesbian isues, but we also work on a whole range of other issues in this state -- which is very fond of violating civil liberties at every opportunity, it seems,'' Frankel said. ``I'm very excited that there's going to be a professional group that is more focused on lesbian and gay issues that we feel we can help.'' Miller echoed those sentiments, saying ``it's really great to have an organization that can provide focus and devote its intentions entirely to these kinds of issues.'' As a board member for the Center, Miller said she would draw on experience from the Women's Law Project which handles about 5,000 calls per year with its telephone counseling service. Like WLP, Miller said the fledgling Center is sure to be inundated with requests for ``legal info, not advice.'' Park agreed, saying ``there's already data out there that tells us there's going to be a lot of people calling.'' Very recently, he said, GALLOP started a lawyer referral service and runs an ad in gay newspapers. ``It's already getting calls once every half hour,'' Park said. GALLOP's current chairperson, EEOC trial attorney David Rosenblum, who is also a member of the Center's board, said the Center's arrival will alleviate some of the burden by handling calls that don't require an attorney. ``We see a lot of people having problems that don't require an attorney,'' Park said. ``Having maybe a packet of information on resources could solve their problem entirely. We also see people who don't have a case and probably need an attorney to tell them that.'' The Center will be non-profit, but will have a separately funded lobbying arm called the Advocates for Lesbian and Gay Law and Public Policy. Frankel said he is anxious not to be the lone lobbying voice in Harrisburg on many gay and lesbian issues. Park said that in recent years, Frankel has been the only source of information about what's going on in Harrisburg that affects gay rights, but that the gay community was starting to lean too heavily on the ACLU. Frankel described a few victories he's seen over the past few years, including the repeal of Pennsylvania's sodomy law five years after it was struck down by the courts. ``That makes us breathe a little easier,'' Frankel said, ``because occasionally someone would say `sodomy's illegal in Pennsylvania and therefore we can't do X, Y or Z.' Well, they can't say that anymore because not only is it unconstitutional, it's off the books.'' But Frankel said many other legislative areas -- education, welfare, family law -- have ``potential for there to be signifgicant impact on lesbians and gays.'' Artful lobbying, he said, often entails rousing interest among the gay and lesbian community about legislation it might not have found important and pushing lawmakers to write gay-friendly statutes ``without even using the words gay and lesbian.'' As an example, Frankel said Pennsylvania's spousal protection from abuse act ``is drafted in such a way that it is available to a person who is in a same-sex relationship.'' But with the advent of the Center, Frankel said his lobbying will only improve because ``it frees me up to talk to other people if I know that someone from the Center has covered some of the bases.'' Park said Frankel's long experience in Harrisburg will be invaluable to lobbying efforts because ``he can tell us who's already on our side; who we have no chance with; and who to spend our resources on.'' Frankel amplified, saying ``the more of us who are thinking about it, looking at it, strategizing on it, the more benefit there is to the enactment of public policies that not only can help gays and lesbians but won't directly harm them.'' ****************************************************************************** * To subscribe to QUEERLAW, send mail to: majordomo@abacus.oxy.edu * * In the mail message, enter ONLY the words: subscribe queerlaw * * To unsubscribe to QUEERLAW, send mail to: majordomo@abacus.oxy.edu * * In the mail message, enter ONLY the words: unsubscribe queerlaw * * Words in the Subject: line are NOT processed! * ******************************************************************************