GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —Simon's Rock will host their annual Pride Week Lecture with guest speaker Dr. Kyle Velte (she/her) on Friday, March 29 at 3:30 p.m. 

 

Simon's Rock observes Pride Week every year in late March and early April to honor International Transgender Day of Visibility and to allow students time to celebrate during the academic year. 

 

In Dr. Velte's lecture "The Legal Minefield for LGBTQ+ People and How You Can Make a Difference," Dr. Velte will cover the current legal and political landscape of LGBTQ civil rights, talk about allyship, and talk about how to resist without giving up joy in these dark legal and political times.

 

Kyle Velte is the Associate Dean for Faculty, Professor, and Karelitz Chair in Evidence Law at the University of Kansas School of Law where she teaches Evidence, Torts, Employment Discrimination, and Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law. She is a nationally recognized expert on sexual orientation and gender identity law and has taught her Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law class as a Visiting Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Professor Velte's scholarship examines the intersection of sexuality, gender, and race to provide insight into contemporary legal debates and current normative questions surrounding LGBTQ, gender, and racial civil rights issues. Her articles have appeared in many top law journals, including the Minnesota Law Review, Yale Law & Policy Review, Cardozo Law Review, and Connecticut Law Review. She filed amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court cases of United States v. Windsor, Obergefell v. Hodges, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. She has appeared in the media such as USA Today and NPR.

 

The Pride Week Lecture will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 29, in the McConnell Theater at the Daniel Arts Center on the Bard College at Simon's Rock campus. The event is free and open to the public. 

 

A live stream is also available at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88973375856