--- title: LGBTQ+ Rights date: 2023-08-01T09:24:00-04:00 author: Joe Batutis canonical_url: "https://www.kelleydrye.com/responsible-business/pro-bono/lgbtq-rights" section: Pages --- # LGBTQ+ Rights Assisting members of the LGBTQ+ community facing discrimination and persecution based on their sexual orientation. ![](https://d3iuizmsm2hayf.cloudfront.net/content/uploads/Hero-Objects/pride_button_alt.webp?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1880&q=80&w=1880&s=0c1d022aacac755860bdd61d73bf4715) ## Our work Kelley Drye is committed to advocacy on behalf of members of the LGBTQ+ community to ensure that individuals and families can live openly with dignity and respect. We are proud of our work to protect and defend an individual’s constitutional rights, especially those most vulnerable to persecution or profiling based on sexual identity. For decades we have partnered with nonprofit organizations that focus on justice for LGBTQ+ members by providing free legal representation that supports the crucial work they do in our communities. ![](https://d3iuizmsm2hayf.cloudfront.net/content/uploads/Image-and-Text-Cards/marissa_indexV2.webp?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=492&q=80&w=756&s=e79675f6a2dcf61513b49626ee639720) ## “We are so grateful to be able to work closely with Immigration Equality on a number of asylum cases, to learn from their extremely talented attorneys, and to play a small role in furthering the organization’s mission.” Marisa Lorenzo, El Salvador and Immigration Equality Award ### El Salvador and Immigration Equality Award Kelley Drye attorneys have demonstrated a continued commitment to providing pro bono services to LGBTQ+ individuals seeking asylum, an effort facilitated through a long-standing partnership with Immigration Equality. In one matter, a team of Kelley Drye attorneys across offices collaborated to successfully obtain asylum for a transgender client from El Salvador nearly a decade after her initial appearance before the Immigration Court. Despite having suffered lifelong persecution in her home country for identifying as transgender and fearing greatly for her safety, the client was initially denied asylum by an Immigration Judge prior to Kelley Drye’s representation. Kelley Drye represented her on appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals, arguing that the court had not fulling considered the client’s gender identity and imputed sexual orientation. The effort was successful, and the case was remanded to an Immigration Court. Kelley Drye attorneys worked tirelessly to prepare for the merits hearing that, due to a long series of delays, finally took place nearly 10 years after her initial asylum hearing. The Judge found in our client’s favor that she was in fact eligible for asylum on the basis of a credible fear of persecution. The team’s unceasing dedication to the client over the course of this long-standing case demonstrates the immense commitment of Kelley Drye attorneys to advocate on behalf of members of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2024, Kelley Drye received Immigration Equality’s 2024 Safe Haven Award for pro bono work on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people seeking political asylum in the United States. ![](https://d3iuizmsm2hayf.cloudfront.net/content/uploads/Image-and-Text-Cards/byroade_TI.webp?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=492&q=80&w=756&s=0564ca1866cd2945e04b109cc3244720) ## “I was thrilled to fight to secure equal rights and be able to help ensure our client’s safety and that of her children.” Melissa Byroade, Helping to Bring Statutory Change for the LGBTQ+ Community ### Acting to Ensure Equal Treatment for Same-sex Couples In 2023, the Virginia legislature amended its assisted conception statute to ensure equal treatment for married same-sex couples who conceive through assisted conception. Previously, the law stated that a husband of a woman who gave birth to a child conceived through assisted conception would automatically be treated as the child’s father, but did not extend similar protections to the wife of a woman who gave birth through assisted conception. The bill known as Virginia HB 1979 replaces the gender-specific terms ​“husband” and ​“wife” with the gender-neutral ​“spouse,” thereby ensuring that same-sex couples who conceive and have children through assisted conception will be extended the same rights as heterosexual couples. This change is due in part to the advocacy of a Kelley Drye team including special counsel Melissa Byroade, who instituted a lawsuit in 2019 in the Eastern District of Virginia against the governor and several other state officials on behalf of their clients, a Virginia same-sex married couple. The clients were expecting a baby girl through assisted conception and sought Kelley Drye’s help in protecting their parental rights. The defendants moved to dismiss the case on 11th Amendment immunity and standing grounds, even though they did not dispute that the statute was unconstitutional. The Court, while sympathetic, had concerns about immunity and standing. So the Kelley Drye team got creative. The team approached state legislators who they found were already considering changes to the statutory language. Through efforts that included testifying and telling our clients’ story before the Virginia House of Delegates, the Kelley Drye team was able to help shape the statutory language and help get the bill signed into law. The clients were elated with the result, which benefits the larger community by providing meaningful equal protection under Virginia law for same-sex couples using assisted conception that they did not have before this lawsuit was brought. ### Pursuing Rights for the LGBTQ+ Community Kelley Drye worked with one of the firm’s pro bono partner legal service organizations, Immigration Equality, to represent a Columbia University graduate from Croatia seeking asylum in the United States because of threats against him for being gay. The client, well known in his hometown and nationally for his activist work in high school, became the target for anti-LGBTQ+ and neo-Nazi groups throughout Croatia once his sexual orientation was revealed by local media. Since becoming a member of the European Union (EU), Croatia has expanded LGBTQ+ rights; however, the community still faces many obstacles. After attending school in the U.S. and experiencing the freedom to be himself, the client decided he wanted to stay in the States. Kelley Drye helped the client to file for asylum in July 2015, and later represented him at his asylum interview, which resulted in the referral of the application to Immigration Court. Subsequently, we assisted the client and his husband in applying for a change of status as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. We are delighted to report that the client’s change of status and asylum applications were litigated in Immigration Court in November 2021 and that he is now a legal permanent resident in the U.S.