Blog of Rights
James
Esseks

James D. Esseks joined the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project in 2001 as Litigation Director. In his current position, he oversees legal advocacy nationwide that aims to ensure equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people by the government; equal rights and protections for LGBT couples and families; protection from discrimination in jobs, schools, housing, and public accommodations; and fair treatment by the government of people living with HIV/AIDS. Prior to joining the ACLU, he was a partner at Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C., in New York. He graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He clerked for U.S. Judge James R. Browning on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Carter in the Southern District of New York.

04/08/2011

A Hard-Earned Victory for Arkansas Kids

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 4:36pm

I’m thrilled to report that we’ve just struck down a second state parenting ban. Just six months after we got rid of Florida’s 33-year-old ban on adoption by gay people, yesterday the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down that state’s related parenting ban as unconstitutional. This removes a barrier that harmed kids and families all across the state, and shows once again that the ideas driving laws like this — that gay people are bad for kids — are simply unfounded.

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09/16/2011
Gender Discrimination

Wear That Dress or Else!

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 4:59pm

That’s basically what a high school principal told Ceara Sturgis at the start of her senior year — you’ve got to wear a “drape,” or scoop-necked covering that looks like the top of a dress, in the yearbook photo. Ceara isn’t comfortable in such revealing clothing, and had spent her entire high school career wearing more masculine attire. The photographer took Ceara’s picture in a tuxedo instead of the drape, as she requested, but the principal jettisoned that photo and printed the yearbook without either her photo or her name appearing in the senior portrait section.

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07/26/2011
Transgender ID

Excuse Me, Ma'am, This Isn’t Your ID

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 2:34pm

Last fall, K.L., an Alaskan who transitioned to living as a woman two years ago, got her local Department of Motor Vehicles office to change the gender marker on her driver’s license from M to F.  She was thrilled to have her identity documents reflect her true gender.  Then she got the letter from the state – prove you’ve had sex reassignment surgery or we’ll take the new license back.

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11/09/2010

Challenging DOMA for Edie and Thea

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 5:49pm

Today we filed a constitutional challenge to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court in New York City. It follows on the heels of the DOMA challenge that Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders won last summer, and highlights a particular harm that DOMA inflicts, this time on an extraordinary lesbian couple who shared a life together for 44 years.

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03/22/2013
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

Marriage in New Mexico, Civil Unions in Colorado – The Wave Continues!

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 10:36am

It seems like every time you turn around these days, someone is announcing new support for the freedom to marry, which is the result of years of groundwork that the ACLU and other organizations have laid to get us to this incredible place.

Yesterday in New Mexico, we filed a new state court lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. We have partnered with the National Center for Lesbian Rights for the litigation, and both organizations have also joined forces with Equality New Mexico and Freedom to Marry on a related public education campaign to help New Mexicans show their neighbors why the freedom to marry is so important. We're riding a wave of enthusiasm in New Mexico, as the Mayor and City Council in Santa Fe announced earlier this week that there's good reason to believe that state law already allows same-sex couples to marry. We think that's right, but know that we're going to need guidance from the courts to get a final answer, so we've filed this case both to present the issue to the courts and to illustrate why denying the freedom to marry is so unfair.

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11/07/2012
2012 Freedom to Marry Ballot Initiatives

A Marriage Moment (and Another One to Come)

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 11:56am

The nation has just had a marriage moment – a tipping point where voters in at least two states have affirmed the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.  The vote illustrates that the country is getting squarely behind the notion that same-sex couples should be able to make the same legal commitment to each other that straight folks can.  And this marriage moment provides immeasurable support for the prospect of another one next June, when the Supreme Court is likely to issue its views on marriage for same-sex couples.

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02/24/2012
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

Maryland: Breakthrough Moment on the Freedom to Marry!

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 12:37pm

With yesterday’s passage of a Maryland bill opening the freedom to marry to same-sex couples, there’s no denying it anymore – we’re at a breakthrough moment in the struggle for fair marriage laws. 

The Maryland marriage law passed the state Senate 25-22 yesterday, after passing the House 72-67 last Friday, and was the result of leadership by the governor and lots of hard work by the Marylanders for Marriage Equality coalition, of which the ACLU is a proud and active member. Even amidst the joy in Annapolis this week, we and the coalition are preparing for the possibility that our opponents will manage to put the marriage law on the ballot this coming November. Part of that work will be highlighting our many, diverse, and growing supporters across the state. A majority of Marylanders are with us and momentum continues to build!

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03/28/2011

For Queer Youth, ACLU Is Here to "Kick Some Ass"!

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 4:29pm

A centerpiece of the ACLU's work for lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender (LGBT) youth is ensuring that public schools don't erase LGBT people from the school environment. Opponents of LGBT equality, or school officials who are simply uncomfortable with LGBT issues, often try to make LGBT people and issues about our lives invisible in school. They tell kids they can't be open and honest about who they are, they fail to mention that historic, literary or political figures were gay, and they prevent discussion of LGBT-related topics both in and out of the classroom.

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11/10/2010

Department of Defense to Service Members: Homos Get Half

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 3:16pm

There's been lots going on around Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) this fall, from a federal judge ordering the reinstatement of Maj. Margaret Witt, to the Obama Administration getting a stay of an order from another federal judge that would have barred the enforcement of DADT worldwide, to continuing efforts at repealing the law in Congress. The ACLU LGBT Project has just added to the frenzy with a new class action case that challenges another form of discrimination faced by gay service members — reduced separation pay.

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08/05/2010

Why Yesterday's Prop. 8 Decision Matters

By James Esseks, Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project at 3:32pm

By now you’ve surely heard about yesterday’s smashing victory in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger federal marriage case in San Francisco. It’s a historic ruling that strikes down Prop. 8 because it violates the federal Constitution. The decision makes some big contributions to the law, but it’s the court’s factual findings that are likely to be most important in terms of changing the dialogue in America about marriage.

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