LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic
The Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Bluhm Legal Clinic’s LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic works to promote and advance litigation in support of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people. The clinic takes on cases and policy issues that provide students with ample opportunities to develop multi-dimensional lawyering skills in a growing specialization like LGBTQI+ rights, which requires skills that can be broadly applied in all kinds of legal practice. Students navigate the myriad intersectional legal challenges that face LGBTQI+ people as a means of educating about professional duties, values-based lawyering, and balancing that with personal morals, all while working on cutting-edge issues that prepare them for a successful legal career following Law School.
Students involved with the Clinic will advocate on behalf of LGBTQI+ people as well as people living with HIV, with a focus on issues impacting low-income members of the communities we serve. Advocacy opportunities may involve direct representation, policy reform, public education, and litigation. Through course readings, lectures, and discussions, students will garner the tools and insights they need to lawyer across difference with the historically marginalized communities the clinic serves. “As a legal advocate, centering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging on many levels including at the community level, for my individual clients, and for my team members is a driving force of the clinic’s vision,” notes Kara Ingelhart, Director of the LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic. “Students will grow communication skills for serving historically marginalized communities, to develop an understanding of the strategies that have shaped our nation’s LGBTQI+ rights movement history, and to immerse themselves in the interdisciplinary nature of the law.”
The LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic was founded in 2024 in response to a growing escalation of harassment, discrimination, and violence targeting LGBTQI+ people across the country. Those negative social pressures not only create immediate harm but lead to long-term disparities in health and economic outcomes. Data show that members of the LGBTQI+ community are more likely to be low-income,[1] to experience worse health and health care outcomes,[2] and to avoid seeking law enforcement support in instances of violence and harassment for fear of facing more discrimination.[3] Meanwhile, threats of violence to the community[4] and anti-LGBTQI+ hate crimes across the country,[5] even within school environments,[6] are increasing. Concurrent with the uptick in negative treatment toward the LGBTQI+ community is the unprecedented number of bills introduced at the state level nationwide, aimed specifically at rolling back LGBTQI+ rights, with an intense focus on rolling back rights for transgender people. Within this environment, the LGTBQI+ Rights Clinic serves as a natural and necessary addition to the Law School’s clinical offerings and will allow the Law School to be responsive the needs of LGBTQI+ individuals and organizations.
