Introduction*

Law and Sexuality: A Review of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Legal

Issues

2006

Article

*1 STANDING TOGETHER [FNa1]

Harold Hongju Koh [FNd1]

Copyright ©  2006 Law & Sexuality: A Review of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and

Transgender LegalIssues; Harold Hongju Koh

*2 I am proud to follow so many illustrious past award winners and delighted to receive the award on behalf of a very special place, Yale Law School, about which I will have more to say in a moment.

It is most exciting for me to be here in the presence of two of the three most important people in my life.  Unfortunately, my wife Christy, who is a legal services attorney, my best friend, and my strongest supporter, could not be here today.  But two who did make the trip from New Haven are my own strongest allies for justice, my daughter, Emily, who is a sophomore at Yale, and my son Will, who is a sophomore in high school.  While cleaning up our house during their summer vacation, they came across a letter that we received nineteen years ago, on July 22, 1986.  This was less than a month after Emily was born. It is printed on United States Supreme Court stationery, and it reads as follows:

Dear Christ[y] and Harold,

What a delight to have the picture of the brand new baby, Emily.  She looks great!  Enjoy your parenthood.  It will never cease to be a matter of wonder and concern and happiness.  These little ones get along pretty well, despite our constant worry, when some little thing seems to be wrong.

I should add that I very much appreciate your supportive comments about Bowers versus Hardwick [which had been decided three weeks earlier]. [FN1]  What you said, means much to me.  I think the dissenting position really won the case.  Only time will tell.

Sincerely, Harry A. Blackmun. [FN2]

I read the letter for two reasons.  First, I wish to remind you all of one of your greatest allies for justice, the person who first inspired me to support LGBT rights, my former boss, Justice Harry Blackmun, who authored the courageous dissent in Bowers v. Hardwick nearly twenty years ago. [FN3]  His observation that the dissenting position in Bowers "really won the case--only time will tell" [FN4] turned out to be remarkably prescient. *3 Second, I read the letter to reflect on the idea that, until recently, my nineteen-year-old daughter Emily and an entire generation of young adults had lived their lives under the yoke of Bowers and the unconscionable discrimination that the opinion condoned.

*Complete Work published in 15 Law & Sexuality: Rev. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Legal Issues (2007), Copyright, Journal of Law & Sexuality: A Review of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Legal Issues.  All rights reserved. 

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