LGBT People—Equal Participants in Delivering and Receiving Legal Services

Over 15 years ago, the legal services community was challenged to end the invisibility of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in legal services in  "Ending Invisibility of Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals in Legal Services," by Gregg Haifley, Kate Meiss, Tanya Neiman, #331, Volume 2, July, 1991.

Since then, some programs have addressed sexual orientation and identity as part of broader diversity efforts. The Legal Services Corporation—the source of federal funds for legal aid—and Legal Services Diversity Coalitions in Massachusetts and New York are examples. Other programs have undertaken various diversity initiatives. Benchmark Institute develops cultural competency skills including LGBT issues in all of its courses; California Protection & Advocacy Inc. has led the way for organizations that provide legal services to people with disabilities.

While some of our programs are committed to recognizing GLBT people as equal participants in delivering and receiving legal assistance, some are not. In many legal services programs, these issues still remain invisible. As a result, the presence, needs and issues of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered people still need to be surfaced and addressed.

GLBT people span all age, racial, ethnic and economic groups. They come in all sizes and colors. Some people are poor. Some have disabilities. Many are doubly impacted (and of course blessed) by GLBT identity and race or ethnic origin.

Like institutional racism and sexism, heterosexism pervades customs and institutions, operating through invisibility and attack. Homosexuality and other gender identities usually remain culturally invisible; when people who engage in homosexual behavior or who are identified as homosexual become visible, they are subject to attack. Examples include the ban against lesbian and gay military personnel; widespread lack of legal protection from discrimination in employment, housing, and services; and hostility to lesbian and gay committed relationships, dramatized by federal and state laws against same-gender marriage.

Creating Workplaces Where GLBT Clients Are Welcomed and Well-Served.

Here’s 10 things we can do to create work environments in which gender and sexual diversity are modeled and valued and our GLBT clients are welcomed and well served. The “we” includes everybody—not just formal program managers—but board, advocates, support and administrative staff.

1. Engage in open, honest and respectful discussions at all organizational levels — board, management and staff —to address program policies and attitudes as they affect LGBT clients, staff and board members. Treating these issues as you would any other, helps maintain an inclusive group.

2. Address intolerance and prejudice directly. To do this your organization must identify LGBT issues (with help if necessary) and then directly address staff and client fears and prejudices. Educating people about GLBT issues and stereotyping can help meet these prejudices.

3. Recognize that LGBT persons have friends, skills and multifaceted interests unrelated to their sexual orientation. Don’t assume that they are suffering or regret their sexual orientation. And if an LGBT individual is having problems, don't assume that sexual orientation is the cause.

4. Educate yourself about LGBT people. As you see materials that address these issues, bring them to the program’s attention. Bring in experts to lead brown bag discussions, workshops and trainings on diversity that includes LGBT issues.

5. Model mutual respect among staff and between staff and clients. Speak out against homophobic behavior — derogatory comments, innuendo, insults, slurs, jokes, or threats—when you witness it. Staffing decisions should be based on staff expertise or other objective standards that do not consider sex, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

6. Value LGBT staff. Implement hiring and benefits policies that send the message that LGBT employees are truly valued. How the program handles these policies determines whether you provide an atmosphere for openly GLBT staff to fully and effectively participate in the organization’s work.

7. Create an environment where GLBT staff can freely choose to be out or not. Coming out is intimate disclosure. Be sensitive that some people are "out" in some areas of their lives, but not in others. Create opportunities for those who choose to be open to do so without fear while respecting the privacy of those who choose otherwise.

Individuals may have very real fears about losing their homes, jobs, and families.  Even if they are safe to come out in your organization, their partner's job may not be as secure, or their landlords or families may be bigoted, or they may fear losing their children. These factors and others enter into the decision to be out at work.

8. Be prepared to respond to how homophobia and hostility from outside the program—attorneys, judges, legislators, and agency personnel—may impact staff. Does the openness of GLBT staff prejudice clients in the courts, before administrative agencies, in policy advocacy and legislative work?  If it does, how should we respond to it?

We agree with the authors of “Ending Invisibility of Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals in Legal Services” who said:

We should not tolerate intolerance by giving in to it. Our mission is to fight intolerance through education and the full range of advocacy skills. We want the best result for our clients that we can possibly get.  However, do we use racial, ethnic or gender criteria as a basis to determine whether, or how, our programs are going to respond to discriminatory attitudes toward racial, ethnic or gender minorities?  Some programs may submit to such pressures. Shame on them. Others may struggle with how to respond.  That's better than pretending that the issues do not exist.  Others may openly and aggressively be supportive of their openly lesbian, gay and bisexual staff.  Good for them. …There are no easy answers to these difficult situations.  However, if we are truly open to having our own prejudices challenged we are also in a position to challenge the prejudices of others as well.

9. Insure that GLBT clients know that your program is committed to provide services to them. Some clients will be open and out. Others will not. Still others will not label themselves GLBT. Staff attitudes toward LGBT clients and their legal needs set the tone for program/client interaction. Having openly LGBT staff sends a powerful message of openness to clients and their communities.

Include in your mission statement that the program is dedicated to working for equality for all clients. Consider including sexual orientation as an explicit component of all service policy statements; with HIV/AIDS status as an explicit component of disability policies. Incorporate specific advocacy objectives about GLBT issues in program work plans.

Behavior speaks louder than words. Doing meaningful outreach and delivering quality services are the best ways to communicate commitment to LGBT clients. Creating a welcoming workplace environment (decor, client education materials) conveys respect for LGBT clients and willingness to help them with their legal problems.

Providing effective service requires that all staff members are skilled at establishing trust and communicating effectively with GLBT clients. For example, staff must be able to recognize when client sexual orientation or identity is relevant to a legal problem, respectfully elicit this information, and explain the consequences if the client’s sexual orientation is revealed or not. An inability or unwillingness to get this kind of information can result in professional ethical violations and malpractice. Staff also must be skilled in representing GLBT clients in hearings and trials, maximizing the chances that decision makers will give their clients a fair hearing despite any preconceived prejudices.

10. Design program priorities to address the legal needs of GLBT people.

Programs must determine client financial eligibility issues such as: what is a “family”, when a domestic partner's or roommate's income will be counted, and whether HIV/AIDS client medical expenses are included as income.

Many programs already meet some of the legal needs of GLBT population through general case priority categories such as custody, disability or housing cases. To gather information about legal needs, consider using client surveys that reach the LGBT population and community service agencies that serve them.

• Health Care 

Just as the drug and alcohol problems in poor communities create a need for different approaches to legal services practice, long term illnesses that impact the LGBT community such as cancer for lesbians and AIDS for gay men create a need for customizing strategies to address the typical needs of LGBT clients. For example, legal service's HIV/AIDS projects may handle life planning (living wills, durable powers of attorney, health consent designees), insurance, employment and employment benefits discrimination, health care rights and rights to privacy and confidentiality. 

• Family Law

GLBT people need representation in adoption, child custody, and domestic violence cases.  In this area, the issue of whether the attorney and client should be open in court is one that programs must carefully explore.

• Civil rights and discrimination

Consider cases of all kinds—employment, insurance, housing, access to health care—as case priority areas for legal services programs. Such priorities should include cases based on discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Legal services programs need to be prepared to assist with hate crimes reporting to law enforcement authorities through GLBT local groups, fair housing organizations, urban leagues, and Jewish organizations.

Read the "Organizational Checklist: Is Your Program Doing Everything Possible To Create GLBT Diversity?" and "27 Practical Suggestions to Make Your Organization More GLBT Friendly"