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YEAR-END GIVING and REPORT - 2023
Please scroll down for our Year in Review.
2023 Year In Review
Thank you for being part of our community. We're so grateful for you!
As we head into the holiday giving season, we hope that you'll generously support Chosen Familly Law Center.
It’s been an inspiring journey and we've truly felt the support of our wonderful communities (and our own chosen families) as we’ve built up our programs and operations. We're honored to serve so many clients in need in New York and to have been part of innovative family policy developments in the U.S. that are creating worldwide momentum for a more inclusive definition of family.
We have big plans to increase our impact, and because of supporters like you, we will be able to serve more clients with direct services, expand our professional and public education programs, and draft and pass more legislation to continue serving ALL families in New York and beyond.
In our Year End 2023 Report below, we summarize our achievements to date, alongside our goals for 2024.
ACHIEVEMENTS
As a small nonprofit working on a shoestring budget, we have achieved so much since our inception in 2017, including:
- Directly supported hundreds of individuals & families with free legal services,
- Trained hundreds of attorneys about inclusive family law,
- Drafted and passed groundbreaking laws, and
- Educated millions of people worldwide about the future of family law.
Through free direct legal services, we have served low-income LGBTQIA+ clients via our Trans Umbrella, Asylee Assistance, Parentage Protection, and Poly Families/Queer Kinship projects. For folks outside of NY seeking services, we have referred hundreds of clients nationwide through our referral network.
We have taught over 50 professional legal education classes to other attorneys through partnerships with organizations like Empire Justice Center, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) LGBTQ Network, Fordham Law School, and many others.
Our Senior Legal Director Andy Izenson became a Harvard Law School Clinical Instructor for 2023, and teaches classes on inclusive family law, impacting hundreds of emerging attorneys.
Andy's work also includes compiling, organizing, and leading professional and public education programs including: a toolkit for LGBTQ+ activists facing digital threats; research about sanctuary legislation for internally displaced persons; trainings for medical and mental health providers to safely provide gender affirming care in sanctuary states; know your rights trainings for queers facing over-policing; and organizing the first convening of trans impact litigation and policy counsel members.
In 2020, our Executive Director Diana Adams and Andy cofounded the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC) in collaboration with Harvard Law School and other policy leaders to draft and pass the nations' first legislation for multi-partner domestic partnerships in Somerville, MA, which they later passed in Cambridge & Arlington MA in 2021. In 2023, PLAC drafted and passed the first-ever relationship structure non-discrimination laws in Somerville & Cambridge MA. Several bills are in process and we expect passage of these revolutionary inclusive famly policy laws in California in 2024.
In 2022, CFLC helped expand the definition of family for rent stabilized apartments in NYC through citation of our work in a New Yorker article by writer Andrew Solomon, as well as via references to the laws we passed in MA.
Diana's work as an activist and advocate was celebrated with invitations to speak to: the Biden Administration in D.C. at the White House as part of BiPlus Organizing US in 2022, the European Parliament via Madrid Summit’s International Conference on Human Rights in June 2023, and an invitation to be an official delegate to the United Nations at the #WETHEFUTURE Summit this November 2023.
Diana's TED talk, “Why US laws must expand beyond the nuclear family” has received nearly two million views, is one of the most popular LGBTQIA+ talks ever, and is now translated in 6 languages worldwide.
CFLC is impacting global media and policy through features in international and national press including: TED Radio Hour, NY Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, New Yorker, The Economist, Insider, Vanity Fair, Good Morning America, USA Today, Above the Law, The Atlantic, Psychology Today, CBS, Vietnam Times, Globe Asahi (Japan), and Der Spiegel (Germany), among others.
GOALS for 2024
In 2024, Chosen Family Law Center plans to:
- Draft and pass historic important legislation in New York and beyond to protect LGBTQIA people and inclusive families,
- Increase the number of families we directly support with FREE legal services,
- Train hundreds of attorneys in inclusive family law by launching hosting our own Continuing Legal Education classes,
- Develop partnerships with LGBTQIA+ health and family centers, to expand services for our clients and reach more of the most vulnerable to offer our services, and
- Educate the public about inclusive families through guides, talks, and media campaigns.
Your support is instrumental to our success in achieving these goals and continuing to expand our services.
Please join us in creating a future for ALL families by making a donation today. Any size donation will make a massive impact. Please consider becoming a recurring donor, contributing through your company's matching fund, or through a donor advised fund.
In your End of Year giving, we would be honored if you would donate to CFLC to support this vital work & allow us to expand.
Donate Now!
If the above giving box doesn't work for you, use the button below to visit our donation page see other giving options, such as checks, corporate matching, or cryptocurrency.
We're here to facilite a smooth giving process. Contact our Development Director at megan@chosenfamilylawcenter.org with any questions.
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