Transgender Attorney Noah Lewis on Advocacy and Law
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 - 4:18pm
by Danny Heffernan, GLAAD's Advertising & Campaigns Fellow
http://www.glaad.org/node/34995This week, we talked to Noah Lewis about his experiences in law school and his work with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) as a staff attorney. Noah recently appeared on The Insider, showing his support for Chaz along with fellow transgender advocates.
Noah began transitioning while attending Harvard Law School. While there, he worked with the Harvard Transgender Task Force to help add gender identity to the school's non-discrimination policy and improve insurance coverage for transgender health care. Recalling that period in his life, Noah says his path as a lawyer was fundamentally altered by his transition experience, as well as a recognition of the diversity inherent within the transgender community. "It was seeing the struggle and suffering of my friends, particularly trans women, that drove me to step up and do this work," Noah tells GLAAD. "As a white, middle class man with a law degree, I did not and will not have the same experience as a client who may be an unemployed trans woman of color." Yet Noah also brings empathy to his work, noting, "I understand what it's like to deal with not being able to access medical treatment, to experience the effects of that, and struggle with the complexities of applying for jobs as a transgender person."
