Amicus Brief Filed in Emilee Carpenter Photography v. James

Summary

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, through its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Rights Committee, submits this amici curiae brief in support of Defendants-Appellees in this case. New York State’s pioneering Human Rights Law, N.Y. Exec. Law § 290 et seq. (the “NYSHRL”), protects vulnerable New Yorkers against discrimination and deprivation of their rights—including discrimination based on, among other things, race, religion, and sex—in places of public accommodation and elsewhere within the state. In 2002, the legislature extended the law’s protections to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, and expanded it again in 2019 to explicitly add gender identity and gender expression to the list of protected groups. The expansions to the law continued a long tradition of broadening the protections of the NYSHRL for the common good of all New Yorkers. Amici write to provide the Court with the important history and application of the NYSHRL to demonstrate why the law’s protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation—among other categories—are essential.