I joined the Bar in 2021, so not that long ago. I’m a tax attorney, I work for McCarter & English, and before that I worked for the State of New Jersey as a Deputy Attorney General… This year I’m going to have the opportunity to speak on a panel [at Lavender Law] so I’m excited about that. I was one of the 40 Under 40 winners this year.

I provide direct pro bono representation to trans and nonbinary name change applicants through my firm’s transgender name change project. My colleague Natalie Watson set that up before I came to McCarter. It was great to [arrive and] find that already in place. I do a lot of volunteering with various LGBTQ+ organizations in New Jersey, like Garden State Equality and a beautiful little education policy organization called Make it Better for Youth. And Trans Affirming Alliance, which is another local New Jersey-based organization. At those organizations I volunteer to jump way in and share my thoughts on things as they arise, because we all know that things are happening really rapidly in the space right now. I consider myself to be on deck to assist those organizations in the good work that they’re doing in response to all of the attacks that are happening.

I’m scared, I’m exhausted. And that’s what I hear from other people in the community. We’re in New Jersey, and a lot of the people I speak to who are trans and nonbinary are also in New Jersey. The state has excellent protections for trans and nonbinary people at the state level. Not so much at the local level, at least not consistently. 

We are at the height of trans protections [in this state], really, but we’re all worn out, we’re tired, we’re scared. We’re afraid because we know that what we have in New Jersey is so fragile. It doesn’t necessarily translate, like I said, from the state level down to the local level, and it could all be gone in two legislative cycles. Or it could all be gone if we end up with a federal administration that wants to take it away from us. A lot of us are spending a lot of time [doing what] we can to help the situation nationally. We do it because we care. We love trans and nonbinary people, we want them to have the health care they need, we want them to participate in public life.

It’s really a matter of survival. They’re trying to get rid of us. They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.

[I think what people need most is] answers to practical questions. Individuals need to know how they’re going to get the care that they need. Providers have a lot of questions too. A lot of what’s needed right now is very practical, and it’s always evolving because the landscape that individuals and providers are navigating is constantly evolving.

There are other needs too – emotional needs like love and support and safety. But there are so many imminent practical needs [and] we have to put out those fires first.

I do think that the intentionality that the Bar has had around developing a relationship with the National Trans Bar Association, and making space for [Trans Law Institute] at Lavender Law – the work that the Bar has been doing for so many years around that – pays off now. We’re connected in a way that we wouldn’t be otherwise. I think it’s because of all the years of work that the Bar has done in prioritizing making a space for trans and nonbinary attorneys to connect with one another and to connect with the broader queer legal community. That pays off now because we’re not starting from scratch when it comes to coming together to address these things. We’re building on something that was already established.