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Tel: 215.715.6042
Email: staceysobel@gmail.com
Expertise
- Civil Rights Law
- Constitutional Law
- Family Law
- Legislative Process
- Non-Profit Organizations
- Public Interest
Bio
Stacey Sobel is a long time advocate on issues related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. She was the executive director of Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, formerly the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, from 2001 to 2008. As the executive director, Ms. Sobel oversaw the organization’s policy and educational efforts, as well as fundraising and administration. She is one of the leaders who worked to defeat legislation attempting to prohibit relationship recognition for non-married couples in the Pennsylvania Constitution in 2006 and 2008, and amended Pennsylvania’s hate crimes law to include actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, mental and physical disability, and ancestry. Her work on the hate crimes legislation included drafting its text, which is one of the most comprehensive in the country and the first Pennsylvania law to recognize the LGBT community. Ms. Sobel has also drafted legislation to amend Pennsylvania’s non-discrimination laws to prohibit employment, housing and public accommodations discrimination of LGBT people.
Under her leadership, Equality Advocates successfully advocated as co-council for the amici curiae for second parent adoption and custody rights for LGBT parents, and as co-council with the City of Philadelphia to uphold the City’s domestic partnership benefits before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Ms. Sobel teaches “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and the Law” at Penn Law, where she received the Adjunct Teaching Award in 2007.
She is a leading authority on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Prior to joining Equality Advocates, she served as the legal director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), where she assisted military members who were harmed by the policy and monitored the policy’s implementation. Her efforts led to significant military policy changes, including obtaining new policies condemning anti-gay harassment.
Ms. Sobel has been invited to share her expertise with many groups, including the White House, members of Congress, the Department of Defense, attorneys and universities. Regarded as an expert in her field, she has been interviewed by numerous newspapers, as well as radio and television shows.
Prior to working at SLDN, Ms. Sobel worked for Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, managing its day-to-day public affairs efforts for AT&T’s Atlantic Region to effectively implement provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Ms. Sobel started her own consulting business in 1992, where she provided legal and government affairs services for clients including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, among others. She also provided pro bono services for: the United States House of Representatives Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee; the Clinton/Gore transition team where she assisted in the preparation of the Federal Communications Commission briefing book for the new Clinton administration; and the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. From 1992 through 1996, Ms. Sobel was also an assistant professorial lecturer at law at the George Washington University Law School. Before she attended law school, Ms. Sobel worked for the New York State Assembly House Operations Committee and the New York State Governor’s Office of Employee Relations.
Ms. Sobel received her B.A., cum laude, from the University at Albany, State University of New York and her J.D. from the George Washington University where she was a Dean’s Fellow.
Representative Publications
Stacey L. Sobel, The Mythology of a Human Rights Leader: How the United States has Failed Sexual Minorities at Home and Abroad,” 21 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 197 (2008).
John G. Culhane and Stacey L. Sobel, The Gay Marriage Backlash and Its Spillover Effects: Lessons from a (Slightly)“Blue State,” 40 Tul. L. Rev. 443 (Symposium Issue) (2005).
Stacey L. Sobel, Sexual Orientation and the Military, 3 Geo. J of Gender & Law 135 (Symposium Issue) (2001).
For additional publications, please consult
Current & Recent Research
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Related Links
Education
- J.D. - George Washington - '91
- B.A. - University at Albany, SUNY - '86
Courses Taught
- Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and the Law
- and Lawyering in the Public Interest.
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