King & Spalding: The Law Firm that Will Defend Anti-Gay Discrimination?

by Michael Jones · 2011-04-18 15:10:00 UTC
Topics:

Imagine if years from now, history books had this to say about your business: when discrimination needed a champion, "x" business was there to make sure anti-gay laws were defended.

The law firm of King & Spalding better be careful, or this is what folks will be saying about it a few years down the road. That's because it was announced today that a partner at King & Spalding, Paul Clement, was tapped by Rep. John Boehner to be the high-priced lawyer to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court.

DOMA might be the most anti-gay law in this land, denying same-sex couples more than 1,100 benefits, tearing apart LGBT families, and financially penalizing same-sex couples in cruel and harsh ways. And King & Spalding lawyers want to help preserve a law with that kind of legacy?

What's particularly frustrating about this news is that King & Spalding is actually a fairly good law firm when it comes to celebrating LGBT issues. They've got an entire page on their website championing diversity and equality, and trumpeting a non-discrimination policy inclusive of LGBT employees. Why would they sacrifice that reputation, to defend an extremely anti-gay law?

That's what the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) wants to know.  HRC is out with a press release this afternoon, taking King & Spalding to task for being the law firm willing to defend a law that keeps LGBT Americans second class citizens.

"The firm of King & Spalding has brought a shameful stain on its reputation in arguing for discrimination against loving, married couples,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “No amount of taxpayer money they rake in will mitigate this blemish on the King & Spalding name.”

A shameful stain is right. Now when folks hear the name King & Spalding, what will come to mind is the fact that when it came time to side on the issue of marriage equality, this law firm decided to side with those who would rip LGBT families apart, and deny loving couples the chance to be equals.

Want to send a message to King & Spalding, letting them know that defending DOMA is not only bad for their reputation, but an affront to LGBT Americans and straight allies around the country. Click here, and let their diversity committee know the damage this is going to do.

Photo credit: srqpix

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

RELATED PETITION

Tell Law Firm King & Spalding: Don't Defend Bigotry Against LGBT People
VICTORY!
1,523 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
Will Ontario Require Catholic Schools to Stop Banning Gay-Straight Alliances?
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (6)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.