The Williams Institute and student editors of the Dukeminier Awards Journal are pleased to announce the best sexual orientation and gender identity legal scholarship published during the 2022-2023 academic year. These four articles and the winner of our 2023 student note competition are featured in Volume 23 of the Dukeminier Awards Journal.

Chan Tov McNamarah
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
Cis-Woman-Protective Arguments, 123 Colum. L. Rev. 845 (2023)

This Essay examines "Cis-Woman-Protective" (CWP) arguments that oppose the equal citizenship of transgender individuals by prioritizing the welfare of cisgender women and girls. It explores the history of woman-protective justifications in American law, their impact on women, and their role in legitimizing discrimination against racial and religious minorities. McNamarah argues that CWP arguments are ineffective, deeply flawed, and even counterproductive if the goal is indeed to protect cis women and girls.

Scott Skinner-Thompson
Associate Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School
Identity by Committee, 57 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 657 (2022)

The identities of trans and gender-variant students are often governed by complex regulatory protocols with input from a host of stakeholders. This Article examines the prevailing discursive and sociolegal ways of framing gender and gender identity. It details the bureaucratic barriers for trans and gender-variant students in schools and explores how the dialectic relationship of social context and gender expression could help society understand the dynamic nature of gender identity.

Ari Ezra Waldman
Professor of Law, UC Irvine School of Law
Disorderly Content, 97 Wash. L. Rev. 907 (2022)

This Article critically examines sexual content moderation and its effects on queer expression. It argues that content moderation encodes queerness as sexual in a way that straightness is not. Waldman explores the similarities and differences between anti-vice enforcement, which disproportionately enforced morality statutes against queer behavior in public, and sexual content moderation on social media, offering justifications for modest legal reform, social activism, and platform responsibility.

S. Lisa Washington
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School
Weaponizing Fear, 132 Yale L.J. F. 163 (2022-2023)

In 2022, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was directed to investigate instances of gender-affirming care on trans youth as child abuse. This Essay examines the Texas directive and concludes that it drew on the inequality, anti-Blackness, and heteronormativity of the family regulation system to target and discipline the most vulnerable families. Washington argues that critiques of the directive insufficiently capture how the family regulation system contributes to the broader control of marginalized families.

Alexandra R. Johnson
Yale School of Law, Class of 2024
Curious Continuity: How Bostock Preserves Sex-Stereotyping Doctrine, 23 Dukeminier Awards J. 235 (2024)

This Note presents the finding that lower courts have refused to read the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., as foreclosing the availability of sex-stereotyping arguments for SOGI discrimination plaintiffs. It explains Bostock’s reference to sex stereotyping and examines how lower courts have interpreted it in SOGI discrimination claims. Johnson argues that Bostock should be read as consistent with the sex-stereotyping line of cases preceding it. This reading maintains fidelity to the logic of Bostock while vindicating its anti-discrimination commitment.

The deadline to apply for these positions is Monday, September 30.

Data Analyst

The Williams Institute is looking for a Project Policy Analyst to assist scholars in conducting public policy, social science, and public health research related to the mission of the Institute. 

Judicial and Legal Education Director & Scholar

The Williams Institute is seeking an experienced director to lead the Institute’s educational programming for judges, lawyers, law students, and the public. The Director will lead the Williams Institute Moot Court Competition, the Dukeminier Awards Journal, and the Institute’s Annual Update Conference.

Join Professors Jon Michaels and Lindsay Wiley, along with Shane Ball (UCLA Law 2026), to discuss Michaels new book Vigilante Nation. Panelists will explore what the resurgence in state-sponsored vigilantism means for our communities—and our democracy.  

You are invited to our annual celebration of Los Angeles' trans and nonbinary communities held at Bike Shed Moto Co. in LA's Arts District. The evening is co-sponsored by LA Pride and the TransLatin@ Coalition, with a performance by the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles.

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law is an academic research institute dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.