June is Gay Pride Month in remembrance of the Stonewall Rebellion. There were riots in response to a police raid of a gay bar in Greenwich Village that, ironically, was owned by the mob, The Stonewall Inn. That was 1969, and it’s credited with giving rise to the Gay Rights Movement, so that gay, lesbian and trans people could be open about their sexual orientation without fear of arrest.

Arrest. Prosecution. Imprisonment. While the protesters needed support for the cause on the streets, when they found themselves in the bowels of 100 Centre Street, they needed something else. They need lawyers.

It’s fitting that the New York City Legal Aid Society’s LGBTQ Caucus recognize Pride Month. Yet, instead of honoring the spirit of the Stonewall Riots, not to mention the reason the Legal Aid Society exists, they have a very different concern: “resistance” to their delicate feelings.

Subject: LGBTQ Caucus Statement on Pride Month at The Legal Aid Society

We write with heavy hearts, with anger and anguish, over how LGBTQ community members – our clients and our colleagues – are treated by some members of The Legal Aid Society (Legal Aid).  We are especially troubled by how frequently the experiences of transgender people of color are often erased, ignored, dismissed, and belittled by some Society members.   We write now to share our experiences, and to simply ask our colleagues to treat our communities and ourselves with dignity and respect.

There was a time when the concern of LAS lawyers was excessive bail, speedy trial, Brady concealment, innocent people of any sexual orientation beaten, arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned. There was a time when the clients, the defendants, were what mattered.

Call them Public Pretenders. Call them LemonAdes. They didn’t care, because these were tough, battle-hardened lawyers who saw the worst of what humanity offers and kept fighting. Every day they went back to the same cesspool of criminal court, despite the lack of appreciation from many clients for their efforts, because that was what LAS lawyers did.

And if nothing, else, they had a sense of humor, particularly gallows humor, which was how they survived the daily grind of staring into the dark void of the system. There was a time, but that time is now gone.

And their complaints now aren’t against the cops. Or the prosecutors. Not even the judges. Their complaints are now against their own, another example of social justice devouring its own. There is probably no group of people more sensitive to the marginalized than the people whose lives are devoted to saving them. But at the same time, their focus shouldn’t be on holding their hands and crying over their personal pronouns, but saving their lives from prison.

To suggest they’re not a singularly progressive bunch is nuts. But not progressive enough for the tastes of the unduly fragile.

Recently there has been discussion over email, in person, and in trainings about how to engage with our clients in gender-affirming ways.  Some of our colleagues claim that it isn’t possible to ask all of our clients questions about who they are in ways that invite them to share with us information about how they identify.

We resist the presumptions that some colleagues have expressed that the vast majority of our clients are cisgender and straight.  LGBTQ people of color are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated, and systematically denied access to housing, healthcare, employment, treatment, and other resources necessary to help individuals and communities thrive.

Your clients “resist” too, but not because of the fantasy that the big issue confronting them is how to “engage with our clients in gender-affirming ways.” They want to get out on bail. They want to beat their case. They want the three minutes you give them in the holding cell to be put toward what they care about.

But you would rather it be spent on your gender agenda.

As for the “vast majority” of your clients being cisgendered and straight, they are. It’s not an affront to you, but LGBTQ is a minute percentage of the population. It’s just reality, and the reality is that your absorption with this issue doesn’t make it their problem. But whether gay or straight, they have one thing in common: they want a lawyer to zealously represent them.

Likewise, we reject the racist assumptions that people of color are more transphobic or homophobic than white people.

We resist the misperception that the homophobia and transphobia expressed by people within the Society merely reflects a generational gap, as if it is not possible for all of us to continue to grow and learn, or as though recognizing how LGBTQ clients’ identities may be relevant to their legal cases or their lives is simply beyond the capacity of older colleagues.

Not making your self-obsession the center of the universe isn’t homophobia, any more than not projecting your gender-obsessed feelings onto your clients is racism. Your issues aren’t the center of the universe, and the fact that some Legal Aid lawyers care more about the client than your agenda doesn’t “empower” you to smear them as racist or homophobic.

That guy in the holding cell? He’s the center of your universe. And if he doesn’t give a damn about your sexual orientation or your questions as to his, that’s totally fine because it’s not all about you. Get him out of jail and you can chat up his sexual orientation all day long, or until he walks away muttering he doesn’t have time for your crap. Whatever. Just be a lawyer first.

For those of you who find yourself resisting the calls to shift our practices toward affirming LGBTQ clients and colleagues, we ask you to set aside your resistance and open yourselves to new ways of engaging with others.

For those of you who already endeavor to recognize and affirm LGBTQ clients and colleagues, we ask you to speak out when you witness resistance and be a bridge between those who are resistant and LGBTQ colleagues.

The job of a public defender is to defend their client. It’s not a calling to first obsess over people’s feelings about sexual orientation, and there is nothing to resist except the state. Trying to frame this as evil LAS lawyers “resisting” your unicorns prancing on rainbows doesn’t make it so. The job of a defense lawyer is to defend their client. The job is to resist anything that impairs their ability to do the best job they can for the client.

Defendants need, and deserve, tough lawyers whose sole concern is the legal representation of their clients. If this is what has become of LAS, then you fail the defense. Nobody suggests that defendants can’t raise any gender or sexual orientation issues, if that’s what they’re concerned with in the holding cell. But if your feelings on political correctness matter more than the concerns of the men and women in the cells, then get the hell out of criminal defense. And if you think the problem is that other LAS lawyers won’t put your gender agenda ahead of their duty to their clients, then they aren’t the problem. You are.