Joey Mogul, a People's Law Office attorney, recently co-authored a book exploring the experiences of sexually non-conforming people in the criminal justice system. In recent years, PLO has been representing more and more people from LGBTQ communities, who have been targeted or punished in the criminal legal system because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. This has included representing a lesbian who was sentenced to death for murder, where the focus of the prosecution sentencing argument was that she was a “hard core lesbian”; representing several transgender and gender non-conforming people who have been illegally and unconstitutionally strip searched, harassed or discriminated against while in police custody; and defending gay men who are falsely accused of engaging in public sex acts. PLO is also involved in efforts to force police departments to change their policies, or lack of policies, concerning the treatment of transgender or gender non-conforming people while in police custody.

People's Law Office (PLO) is a law office in Chicago, Illinois, which focuses on representing clients who have been the victims of attacks by governmental officials and agencies. Such clients include political activists who have been targeted because of their opinions or organizing work, people who have been wrongfully arrested and imprisoned or subjected to excessive force, and criminal defendants. People’s Law Office currently has eight attorneys — Michael Deutsch, Ben Elson, Sarah Gelsomino, Janine Hoft, Joey Mogul, John Stainthorp, Jan Susler and Flint Taylor, with former partner Jeff Haas of counsel. The office has three full-time support staff — Lourdes Arias, Alberto Rodriguez and Brad Thomson.

Further Readings:

Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States by Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie, Kay Whitlock
Series: Queer Action / Queer Ideas
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press; a edition (January 24, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807051152
ISBN-13: 978-0807051153
Amazon: Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States
Amazon Kindle: Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States

Winner of the 2011 PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency

A groundbreaking work that turns a “queer eye” on the criminal legal system, Queer (In)Justice is a searing examination of queer experiences—as “suspects,” defendants, prisoners, and survivors of crime. The authors unpack queer criminal archetypes—like “gleeful gay killers,” “lethal lesbians,” “disease spreaders,” and “deceptive gender benders”—to illustrate the punishment of queer expression, regardless of whether a crime was ever committed. Tracing stories from the streets to the bench to behind prison bars, they prove that the policing of sex and gender both bolsters and reinforces racial and gender inequalities.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels

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