Catherine West is a staff attorney with Legal Voice. She fights for gender equity on behalf of girls, women and LGBTQ+ people with administrative, legislative and litigation strategies. Catherine seeks to amplify community-led strategies and solutions by working in coalition with organizations and individuals. Catherine has spent twenty-four years focused on the needs of low-income, vulnerable and marginalized populations. Catherine represented low-income clients at the Northwest Justice Project for fifteen years. As an attorney with the Medical-Legal Partnership, she advocated for the rights of trans youth. In 2015, she received Northwest Justice Project’s Advocacy Award. Catherine attended law school at the University of Wisconsin. Her article about the need for LGBTQ+ families to be included in the surrogate health care decision-making statute was published by the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender and Society. She is a member of the Washington State Bar Association and the Quinault Indian Nation Tribal Bar. In the fourth grade, she was the Badminton champion of her elementary school.
Catherine West
Community Driven Anti-Discrimination Legislation: Closing the Gender Affirming Care Loophole