Against a divisive national landscape around trans rights, Fordham Law students have come together to find support, build community, and advocate for justice. As Transgender Awareness Week (Nov. 13-19) kicks off, Advocates for Trans* Law Students (ATLS) is focusing its support for transgender and non-binary students at the Law School and bringing awareness to transgender issues. The group is the outgrowth of a trans task force of Fordham Law’s queer student affinity group OUTLaws established in September 2022 and was formally recognized as a student organization in the spring of 2023. ATLS was the first trans law student group in the nation according to the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association.
August Naston ’25
ATLS Co-Founder August Naston ’25 spoke about the group’s mission and goals.
Given the latest backlash against trans rights, how do you see the role of ATLS?
There’s a perception that we are in New York and, therefore, trans people are safe, which is not true unfortunately. All you need to do is go to a drag story hour and see that there’s a robust group of far-right folks who hate trans people in our New York community. It’s really important that ATLS exists to tell people this is not just some far away thing that’s happening—and even if it were far away, it’s still important to care. At the local level, I think we’ve been able to really raise awareness on those issues and call attention to things that are really affecting us on the ground, as a group.
How are you working with the trans community within the Law School?
Working off campus, I believe, has given us more exposure to different activist strategies and has helped us gain more experience with what works and what doesn’t, so that we can bring that advocacy back onto campus. This semester, we’ve been focused on helping with trans inclusivity and trans sensitivity training for faculty and bringing more trans people [as guest speakers]to campus for visibility. Our goal is to make it so that you are hearing about trans law and trans litigation from trans people and that it’s not some vague discussion point in your Legislation and Regulation class, and you can’t visualize what a practicing trans attorney looks like. We want trans law and trans attorneys to be a real thing that people can experience and know about.
Advocacy and service are part of your mission. How are you serving the greater trans community in New York City?
Last year, we held three name change clinics: two standalone clinics during the fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters and one at the Trans Art Bazaar in the spring. This year, we’ve started doing them weekly as a standing event. We have a notary and petitions; we help people fill out their paperwork; and then we give them instructions on how to file. I think that has been really fantastic because, in addition to the other name change events we do—we almost always now have a booth at the Trans Art Bazaar—we have been able to help triage this issue of inaccessibility. Changing your name is not a difficult process. It is just bureaucratic and it is even more intimidating for trans folks who don’t interact with the legal system regularly. And, now, we’re at the point where we’re seeing returns from going straight to the trans community since last November. At the last Bazaar [held Oct. 22], people actually came up to our booth and told us, “Hey, thank you. I used your name change clinic a few months back and everything went through and it was just really fantastic and helpful.” That has been a really amazing thing to hear because it helps us know that we’re not just sending these people away, who may or may not file. They’re actually making this really important and positive change in their lives.To date, we have assisted more than 150 people with their name changes, and that number grows each week.
Transgender Awareness Week aims to increase the visibility of transgender people and address issues members of the community face. Why is this kind of recognition of trans issues important?
Trans Awareness Week revolves around Transgender Day of Remembrance [Nov. 20], and each year, pretty much, is the deadliest year on record for trans people. That pattern has continued over the last several years, and I think it is really difficult for some people to conceptualize how the lack of access to gender affirming care and lack of a supportive social environment in which you can socially transition can contribute to that. So, it’s important to have this week not only to celebrate our community and show love for it, but to also show folks that this is really an issue that has to be taken seriously, because it is life or death.
The right to life, to health, and to life with dignity are violated when trans people are killed for being who they are. This week is a very solemn time because we’re remembering all of the people we’ve lost—and by far it’s most often trans people of color—and it’s a time for us to reflect on how we can be doing better to help our community and for our allies to also reflect on that. But it’s also time to celebrate, I think, a lot of the progress and the wins that we’ve had, and to be solutions oriented in thinking about how we can prevent another needless death, another hate crime from happening. And we all, especially as law students, have a lot of privilege that we can wield to help solve this problem.
ATLS will be hosting a screening of the documentary, “The Stroll,” on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 12:30 p.m. Register to attend.
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