April 2011
Panel Considers Decriminalizing Homosexual Conduct
Thank you to Chair Eduardo Juarez and Past Chair/Co-Founder Charles Spain for testifying before the committee yesterday. Your section has called for this statute's repeal through the Bar's legislative package. (The Bar's Board of Directors adopted your section's resolution unanimously.)
See Texas Tribune article.
Pictured (left to right):
Eduardo Juarez, Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) and Charles Spain
Tuesday, June 2, 2010
Presidential Proclamation–Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
Click here to view the article.
Friday, January 22, 2010
CeCe Cox to be honored in the Profiles in Leadership Award
SOGII’s past Council member Cece Cox will be honored with the Profiles in Leadership Award by the Southern Methodist Women’s Symposium.
Congratulations, Cece!
For more information see the attachment and visit www.smu.edu/womsym
Friday, January 22, 2010
SOGII’s, Phyllis Frye to be part of 25th Annual School Law Conference
SOGII Treasurer (co-founder and past chair) Phyllis Frye will be a part of the 25th Annual School Law Conference at the University of Texas. For information and a brochure go to http://www.utcle.org/conference_overview.php?conferenceid=897.
She plans to post her outline and links at www.liberatinglaw.com, click “2010 School Conf.” So check it for time to time during the next several weeks. She hopes that you find it helpful and share it with others, especially as more kids are coming out at earlier ages.
Monday, October 26, 2009
ABWA names Burch 1 of top 10 businesswomen
SOGII members:
I, on behalf of the Council, congratulate Council Member Lorie Burch on her wonderful and well deserved recognition from the American Business Women’s Association.
http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_12001.php
Well done, Lorie !
Christopher Walter
Chair
SOGII Section – the LGBT resource for the Bar
www.txsogii.org
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Remembering U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer
We remember the life and passing of retired U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer at October 2nd’s memorial service being held at the Belo Mansion in Dallas. On behalf of the Council, I extend our deepest condolences and sympathy to his family, friends, and colleagues with a special consideration to his daughter and Section member Pam Buchmeyer.
I include below a wonderful op-ed article that past-Council Member Cece Cox wrote that I hope you find enlightening and gives the reader a since of history and appreciation for what Judge Buchmeyer has done for the LGBT community, his children’s community. The Council and I thank Cece and her partner Chief Judge Barbara Houser for representing the Council and myself at today’s wake.
May we remember our strong and wonderful ally Judge Buchmeyer and hope that the path that he paved will be traveled by many more allies like him.
Yours truly,
Christopher Walter
SOGII Section Chair
http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_11916.php
Thursday, September 24, 2009
National LGBT Bar Association Career Fair and Conference
On September 10-12, 2009, several SOGII members attended the National LGBT Bar Association Career Fair and Conference in Brooklyn, New York. SOGII’s Phyllis Frye (treasurer, past chair and co-founder) was awarded the 2009 Transgender Advocacy Award by National LGBT Bar Association for her “unparalleled impact on the lives of transgender individuals.” Eduardo Juarez, SOGII Vice Chair, sits on the Membership Committee for the National LGBT Bar Association, and as such, attended a lunch meeting with the association’s board members.
Vice Chair Juarez also attended a panel discussion titled “How Bar Associations Across the Nation are Pushing for LGBT Rights” where he networked with individuals from different states who are doing work in their bar associations similar to SOGII’s work.
Past Chair, Karen Langsley facilitated a panel on dissolution in the first-ever Family Law Institute, a gathering of LGBT family attorneys from over 30 states.
The conference and career fair, sponsored annually by the National LGBT Bar Association, included over 35 workshops and general attendance sessions on a wide range of topics including family law, transgender law, employment law, immigration, as well as the work of bar associations in the push for LGBT rights. The 2010 National LGBT Bar Association Career Fair and Conference will be held on August 26-28, 2010 in Miami, FL (lgbtbar.org). Report filed by SOGII Vice Chair Eduardo Juarez.
Thank you to all Council and Section members for representing SOGII at National. Be sure to mark your calendar for next year’s conference.
Christopher Walter
SOGII Section Chair
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Chris Walter, SOGII Chair, appointed to the Council of Chairs Executive Commitee
State Bar of Texas Council of Chairs’ Chair Frederick Barrow appointed SOGII Section Chair Christopher Walter to serve on the Council of Chairs’ Executive Committee to represent the small sections. “I am privileged and honored to serve the small sections on the committee. I look forward to helping Chair Barrow achieve his goals for the sections and give a strong voice to the small sections,” Walter says.
This is the first time in the SOGII Section’s 11 year history that one of its chairs has been asked to serve on the Council of Chairs’ Executive Committee. Barrow appointed Walter at the September 11, 2009 Council of Chairs’ meeting in Austin, Texas. Congratulations to Christopher and the SOGII Section
The Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification Issues Section is the LGBT legal resource for the State Bar of Texas and its members
Eduardo Juarez
SOGII Section Vice Chair
Monday, June 22, 2009
Legal parentage matters for lots of reasons. One of those reasons is that it determines whether a parent-child relationship exists for the purpose of inheriting in the absence of a will. So when a lesbian couple has a child together using donor insemination, the legal status of the biological mom’s partner determines whether the child will inherit from her if she dies without a will that names the child as a beneficiary. This is one of the many reasons why a couple might do a second parent adoption and why some of us are trying to rewrite parentage statutes so that a biological mother’s partner is automatically the legal parent of the child that the two of them plan for together.
Well, the latest amendments to the Uniform Probate Code automatically recognize the parentage of both mothers. Like all laws written by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the Uniform Probate Code becomes law only in those states that enact it. But arguing for something that is in a uniform law is arguing for something that has been vetted by many legal experts and therefore carries an enormous stamp of legitimacy. (Colorado and North Dakota have already enacted these provisions)
Section 2-120(f) of the Uniform Probate Code now says that “a parent-child relationship exists between a child of assisted reproduction and an individual other than the birth mother who consented to assisted reproduction by the birth mother with intent to be treated as the other parent of the child.”
Consent is established if the individual “before or after the child’s birth, signed a record that, considering all the facts and circumstances, evidences the individual’s consent” or “functioned as a parent of the child no later than two years after the child’s birth” or “intended to function as a parent of the child no later than two years after the child’s birth but was prevented from carrying out that intent by death, incapacity, or other circumstances.” (”Functioned as a parent” is further defined in Section 2-115
A separate provision, 2-120(e), reads that “a birth certificate identifying an individual other than the birth mother as the other parent of a child of assisted reproduction presumptively establishes a parent-child relationship between the child and that individual.” This provision will apply to couples in states that put the names of both mothers on the birth certificate because the biological mother is married to or in a civil union or domestic partnership with another woman.
Comments to these sections of the Uniform Probate Code make clear that the drafters fully intended the child of a lesbian couple to be considered the child of both of them for inheritance purposes. This was not an accident
Click here to read more from Professor Nancy Polikoff’s blog . . .
Karen J. Langsley
PO Box 62
Dripping Springs, TX 78620
Tel: (512) 563-8727; Fax: (512) 233-1059
Collaborative and Alternative Family Law
SOGII member Jerry Simoneaux moves from private practice
to Probate Court Staff Attorney
“As a staff attorney in Probate Court One, my primary responsibility will be over the guardianship docket.I will review all pleadings in guardianship actions and set the docket for contested and uncontested matters. I will also be a resource for attorneys providing assistance on substantive and procedural issues. As a public service of the Court, I also plan to speak at continuing legal education courses around the state on guardianship, probate, and estate planning issues.”
Please click here to learn more about this !
Congratulations to our own Cece Cox
Kudos to Cece Cox of Dallas for being appointed as a Founding Member of the Executive Board for the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development at Southern Methodist University!!
Cece is also a past SOGII Section Council member.
Well done, Cece!
Phyllis R. Frye Honored by Texas A & M University
On April 29, 2009 Texas A&M University’s Department of Multicultural Services honored Section co-founder, past chair and current treasurer Phyllis R. Frye with a new award named after her and her advocacy, the Phyllis Frye Advocacy Award.
The University announced the following: “Included this year is a new award honoring civil rights pioneer and the grandmother of the transgender movement in America - Phyllis R. Frye who graduated from Texas A&M University in 1970 with her B.S. Degree in Civil Engineering and in 1971 with her M.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Phyllis Frye’s philosophy of not just walking through doors of intolerance, but tearing them down is exemplified by the 2009 recipient of this prestigious award, Dr. James Rosenheim. Dr. Rosenheim has nurtured relationships with GLBT faculty, staff, students, allies and community members for over two decades both on and off campus.
His leadership and brilliant mind have inspired and encouraged those who have found themselves in a place affectionately called “Closet Station” and he is credited with helping to transform Texas A&M University into a place where every individual is valued.”
Congratulations Phyllis !!!
