In 1980, 10 lesbian and gay lawyers in the Bay Area came together and formed an LGBT bar association. They named it Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. In honor of its 36th anniversary, BALIF recently held a panel discussion looking at the organization's history and the work to come for LGBT civil rights.
Though BALIF is the oldest and largest LGBT bar association in the country, at the time there were barely enough members to call it a bar association.
"When we started BALIF, there were only 10 out LGBT lawyers in San Francisco. Very few people had the ability to be out, we were losing our kids, jobs, and housing, and no one got a job at a big firm if they were out," said Donna Hitchens, a lesbian who's a retired San Francisco Superior Court judge.
Hitchens, who started the National Center for Lesbian Rights and is a co-founder of BALIF, made the comments October 4 during a panel discussion at the law firm Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw Pitman LLP in downtown San Francisco.
BALIF opened doors to possibilities that members didn't realize were available to them.
"I didn't know we could be openly gay and in every branch of law. We were setting up community with BALIF and saying 'we're here' and it was incredibly empowering," said Fred Hertz, a gay lawyer and initial member of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel. "I learned I could be a valuable member of LGBT community without being an activist lawyer �" which was a different kind of activism.
"Importantly, blending career with lefty activism meant BALIF was welcomed by both sides," said Hertz.
"Our activism joined with our social lives and became part of one energizing force that brings us to today. I may be Armani on the outside," said lesbian attorney Nanci Clarence, as she stood up and took off her suit jacket, "but on the inside I'm ACT UP," as she revealed a T-shirt to applause.
In the early 1980s, BALIF's focus was on getting LGBT judges on the bench.
"BALIF formed to get Mary Morgan appointed as the first out lesbian judge in the country �" and maybe the world. We applied pressure on Jerry Brown after his re-election and soon after she was appointed," said Carl Wolf, a gay man who founded the first LGBT-owned law firm in the Bay Area, referring to Brown's first stint as governor in the 1970s.
"If not for BALIF, there would not be nearly as many LGBT judges in the Bay Area. When I had a gay witness, I knew the lawyer told them I'm gay to help them feel more comfortable," said Hitchens to a crowd that included retired federal Judge Vaughn Walker, who in 2010 ruled that California's same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8, was unconstitutional, setting up the eventual showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2013, the high court threw out Prop 8, clearing the way for same-sex marriage in the Golden State.
In the mid-1980s, the AIDS epidemic became the dominant focus of BALIF's work, and the need for LGBT legal aid was overwhelming.
"We lost so many members. Two-thirds of men in BALIF died. We started the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and would go to Ward 5A at SF General [Hospital] and make wills for young men dying. We would schedule it at the end of the day because we couldn't go back to work after, it was too emotional," said Wolf.
Added Clarence, "It's hard to imagine but there was no infrastructure. I was a young criminal defense lawyer writing wills. I called a young man's family in Iowa to tell them he was dying. They wouldn't come visit until after he died. Picking them up from the airport to bring them to his apartment was one of the hardest things I've ever done."
Coming out professionally was �" and continues to be �" a challenge at work.
"I came out professionally in a newspaper article when I got a job with the NCLR. I realized the privilege of white lesbians and gays versus people of color who can't choose whether to be out. So I choose to not pass when so many others don't have the option," said Kate Kendell, the longtime executive director of NCLR, which brought one of the cases that won the 2015 ruling from the Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.
"My clients flinch sometimes when I mention my wife. In the business world it's hard enough being a woman, to add one more potential obstacle to the client thinking I can get the job done is tough. Maybe that's my internalized homophobia. But having marriage has made it a hell of a lot easier," said Clarence.
While landmark successes like marriage equality had some people questioning the need for organizations like BALIF, its members have no doubt about the valuable role BALIF will play in the LGBT civil rights battles to come.
"Marriage was a high watermark. We've already seen the backlash to it," said Kendell.
"The battles ahead will focus on religious refusal laws; trans attacks, which have been huge and sustained, especially targeting trans youth; family law, such as not recognizing adoptions; and the toxic atmospherics nationally, like misogyny towards Hillary [Clinton]. We are preparing for more backlash. We've seen how far we've come, and can't take it for granted," she added.
Clarence did make one point about the LGBT legal organization.
"We don't need BALIF to meet girlfriends anymore," she said to laughter. "It's a powerful way to stand in coalition with other minority bar associations. BALIF is a tremendous force for good."
Others also said that LGBT bar associations are needed.
"BALIF still provides a safe harbor, stiffens the spine, and offers a sense of community. It recognizes that we are literally everywhere, so we have to show up on issues across the board," said Kendell.