James D. Esseks is Director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project. The ACLU works to ensure equal treatment of LGBT people and people living with HIV through litigation, legislative lobbying, policy advocacy, organizing, and public education. James is counsel in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. EEOC and Aimee Stephens, and Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, in which the United States Supreme Court will address whether anti-LGBT discrimination is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII.  Previously, James was counsel in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that won the freedom to marry nationwide; in United States v. Windsor, the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act; in Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, about whether a Virginia school board can bar a boy from the common restrooms because he is transgender; and in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, about whether a business open to the public can turn away LGBT customers based on its religious or artistic objections. James and the ACLU have also worked extensively to fight the recent spate of anti-LGBT and specifically anti-transgender bills in the states and to fight the use of religion as an excuse to harm LGBT people.