Neurodivergence in academic libraries: A review of findings, recommendations, and remaining gaps in practice and research. An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper
Title IX’s effectiveness in addressing campus sexual assault is at risk − a law professor explains why
Recent changes to the federal law that bans sexual discrimination in education could make life tougher for students who experience sexual assault or harassment.
DEI closures at colleges leave students with ‘a different reality’
The student experience is changing at universities after multiple diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices and centers have been shut down. Schools such as the University of Mi…
Inequity, precarity, and disparity: Exploring systemic and institutional barriers in open access publishing - Philips Ayeni, Vincent Larivière, 2025
Despite increasing advocacy for open access (OA), its uptake in some disciplines has remained low. Existing studies have linked the low uptake of OA in the huma...
Education Department dismisses thousands of civil rights complaints at an ‘unheard of’ pace
The department has focused its civil rights efforts on stamping out campus antisemitism since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Unraveling Equity - 11/18/2024
Unraveling Equity: The Effects of Anti-DEI Legislation on Academic Law Library Workers This important discussion shines a light on the often-overlooked role ...
Supreme Court delivers major blow to transgender rights, upholding Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors
The justices' 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump's Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. Another 26 states have laws similar to the one in Tennessee.
“Harming Young People”: Chase Strangio on SCOTUS Trans Heathcare Ban & End of LGBTQ Suicide Hotline
In a 6-3 decision on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth, paving the way for other bans on trans healthcare to remain in effect in 24 other states. According to the ACLU, over 100,000 transgender people under the age of 18 now live in a state with a ban on their healthcare. “This is a fight that extends back 100 years, and we will keep fighting for 100 more years,” says Chase Strangio, the first openly trangender attorney to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court and the co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
Top Sexual Assault Hotline Drops Resources After Trump Orders
Fearing funding cuts, the anti-sexual-violence organization RAINN barred referring callers to resources for L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants and other marginalized groups.
Exclusive: US Army to change transgender soldiers' records to birth sex
The U.S. Army will alter the records of transgender soldiers to show only their sex at birth, according to internal guidance seen by Reuters that details a series of steps it will take as it pushes them out of the service.
The miracle of the Black leg : notes on race, human bodies, and the spirit of the law - Patricia J. Williams
"Beginning with a jaw-dropping rumination on a centuries-old painting featuring a white man with a Black man's leg surgically attached (with the expired Black leg-donor in the foreground), contracts law scholar and celebrated journalist Patricia J. Williams uses the lens of the law to take on core questions of identity, ethics, and race. With her trademark elegant prose and critical legal studies wisdom, Williams brings to bear a keen analytic eye and a lawyer's training to chapters exploring the ways we have legislated the ownership of everything from body parts to gene sequences--and the particular ways in which our laws in these areas isolate nonnormative looks, minority cultures, and out-of-the-box thinkers. At the heart of 'Wrongful Birth' is a lawsuit in which a white couple who use a sperm bank sue when their child 'comes out Black'; 'Bodies in Law' explores the service of genetic ancestry testing companies to answer the question of who owns DNA. And 'Hot Cheeto Girl' examines the way that algorithms give rise to new predictive categories of human assortment, layered with market-inflected cages of assigned destiny. In the spirit of Dorothy Roberts, Rebecca Skloot, and Anne Fadiman, The Miracle of the Black Leg offers a brilliant meditation on the tricky place where law, science, ethics, and cultural slippage collide"--
Long Beach gay trials : a history of injustice - Gerrie Schipske
Long Beach gay trials : a history of injustice-book
Why there’s uncertainty around Title IX — and what its future could look like
Title IX aims to prevent sex-based discrimination in education, but different administrations have taken different interpretations of what that means and what constitutes discrimination.
Salt Lake City and Boise make pride flags official city emblems, skirting flag ban laws
The Democratic controlled cities of Salt Lake City and Boise, Idaho, adopted new city flags this week that show support for LGBTQ+ people in defiance of new laws passed by their states’ Republican-controlled Legislatures.
Self-Accommodation
The reasonable accommodation mandate was intended to ensure access for people with disabilities. Yet some people with disabilities who are eligible for and in n
Trump's federal layoffs are disproportionately impacting women and people of color
A new analysis by the National Women's Law Center captures how President Trump's mass job cuts are chipping away at the diversity of the federal workforce.
Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures in 2025 | American Civil Liberties Union
Reed Smith Abandons DEI Program Amid EEOC Scrutiny: What the Rebrand Really Means for Law Firm Diversity
Introduction: From Gold Standard to “Culture & Engagement” For years, Reed Smith was celebrated as a diversity champion in BigLaw. The firm consistently earned accolades from the Women In Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) and touted its DEI milestones in public-facing content. But in a dramatic shift, the global firm has announced that it is “retiring” […]
Creating a seat at the table : reflections from women in law - Beth Bilson, Leah Howie, and Brea Lowenberger, editors.
"Creating a Seat at the Table is an edited collection that compiles the experiences of eighteen women as they navigate their way through the male-dominated spaces of law school and the legal profession. Hear from women from different generations and areas of the law--big and small law firms, legal aid, government and politics, the judiciary, in-house positions, administrative agencies. The authors discuss a multitude of issues they've faced in their careers, including the compound effects of discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, or disability as well as gender. The stories presented here are inspirational at times and discomforting at others. Creating a Seat at the Table shows that much has been done to advance women in law but also highlights that much remains to be done."--
Anti-DEI Legislation Tracker | BestColleges
There are currently more than 30 bills across the U.S. targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at public colleges.
Report of the Prejudicial Materials Working Group - RBMS Controlled Vocabularies Editorial Group, June 2024
The Prejudicial Materials Working Group (PMWG) of the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies
Editorial Group (CVEG) was convened in the summer of 2020 to review, revise, and generate
new terminology in the RBMS Controlled Vocabulary for Rare Materials Cataloging (RBMS
CVRMC) that would be useful for indexing works that are prejudicial in nature, or that are the
byproduct of prejudicial and hateful systems and ideologies. This work included review and
revision of scope notes and relationships between terms.
How to Assess the New Legal Risks of Your DEI Policies
What has—and hasn’t—changed in the legal landscape.
The False Dichotomy of Merit and Inclusion
To fairly reward talent in all its forms, companies need to remove barriers that prevent people’s potential and contributions from being recognized.
NALP Report Finds Slow Progress in ‘Fragile’ Pipeline of Diverse Talent in the Legal Profession
NALP's annual Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms finds slow progress in the legal profession's 'fragile' pipeline of diverse talent.
Erin Reed | Substack
Transgender Journalist reporting on LGBTQ+ legislation, news, and life every day. Linktree/Socials: https://linktr.ee/erininthemorn Website/booking: https://www.erininthemorning.com/
The Legal Landscape Around DEI Is Shifting. Your Messaging Should, Too.
How you communicate about your policies can be just as important as what those policies are.
Department of Education Releases Enforcement Guidance for Title IX
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a
The Complicated Role of the Modern Public Library
They are "the original sharing economy," "early warning systems for broad cultural phenomena," offering tai chi lessons, advice, social services, and, yes, books, a whole lot of books.
Urban inequality, the housing crisis and deteriorating water access in US cities - Nature Cities
Meehan and colleagues study access to running water in large US cities since 1970, finding that the 2008 financial crisis worsened household ‘plumbing poverty’ in many cities. This disproportionately impacted households of color and generally squeezed lower-income households into more precarious living situations.
Chase Strangio Makes History: First Trans Lawyer to Argue at Supreme Court
Next week, our guest Chase Strangio will make history as the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court. Strangio will argue on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project that Tennessee’s state ban on gender-affirming hormone therapies for transgender children is a form of sex discrimination. “Our hope is that the cultural anxiety about trans people … is not going to sway the justices from applying straightforward constitutional principles,” says Strangio about the case. We also discuss recent cultural backlash against trans rights as part of an “approach to gender that is regressive and dangerous.” The Democratic Party has been unwilling to provide a robust defense to conservative attacks on trans identity, says Strangio, ceding ground to the further loss of the community’s civil rights and protections. Yet even as trans people are “demonized” and blamed for structural problems in the U.S., he adds, “We have always resisted. We have always taken care of each other. No matter what happens, that is what we’ll do.”