The 2024 Review of Law and Social Change’s Colloquium– Queer Liberation Beyond the Law: The Past, the Present, and the Future of LGBTQ+ Activism—brought together legal practitioners, queer liberation activists across generations, and people that have been impacted by the anti-LGBTQ+ animus ingrained deep within American society to explore the legal landscape of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States, the intersection between LGBTQ+ social movements and other movements for progressive social change, and a future of collective liberation from the intertwined systems of oppression that enact harm onto marginalized communities.

A Quick Overview: Contemporary queer rights within the law classroom are often taught merely within the confines of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Lawrence, Obergefell, and Bostock. Yet, the basic legal curriculum has yet to respond to the ways that these decisions have been increasingly attacked in state legislatures, and the failures of our institutions to ensure the full promise of equal protection for LGBTQ+ individuals in America.

This event intended to image liberation as not something that occurs in a vacuum for a single community, but as a continuous process that has the power to effect positive change for all peoples based on each community’s individual needs and shared humanity.

RLSC would like to thank our NYU co-sponsors: OUTLaw, Disability Allied Law Students Association, Environmental Law Society, Gender Violence Advocacy Project, Health Law & Policy Society, Law Students for Economic Justice, Law Women, Midwestern Law Society, and the Public Interest Law Student Association.

Panel Overviews

Day 1 – February 29, 2024

Panel 1/Keynote: The 30 Years Struggle for Trans Rights on the Inside

Participants: Dee Farmer & D Dangaran

Panel 2: Intergenerational Queer Activism

Moderator: Ron Goldberg

Panelists: Cayenne Doroshow, Derrick Ingram, Leslie Cagan, Mx. Daniels

Panel 3: The Law of Queer Rights and Its Limitations

Moderator: Molly Griffard

Panelists: D Dangaran, Dee Farmer, James Esseks, Whit Washington

Day 2 – March 1, 2024

Panel 4: Intersectional Queer Activism in Practice

Moderator: maya finoh

Panelists: Melanie Cruz-Morales, Naz Seenauth, Sasha Alexander

Liberated Healing Workshop Led by Project LETS