Human Rights Panel Discussion - LGBT Community

Friday, April 27, 12:15 p.m. - Room 212

Prof. David Whitcomb from the UND Counseling Dept., and Cheryl Bergian, a Fargo attorney specializing in human rights, will be leading a panel discussion on legal issues currently facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in North Dakota and at the national level.

All faculty, students, and staff are invited. The discussion will also introduce a new LGBT/Ally law student organization forming here at the law school, and invites all interested students to attend to hear more about that organization. The discussion will be informal, so feel free to bring your lunch.

By way of brief background, ND is one of the few jurisdictions without a state government human rights commission. Both Prof. Whitcomb and Ms. Bergian have been active in efforts to change that. They have also both been active in forming local human rights coalitions.

Prof. Whitcomb is a member of a Grand Forks coalition which is working to formalize a city human rights commission. He is also a member on the local chapter of GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network), which works to help ensure equal rights protection for students in K-12 schools.

Ms. Bergian is the Executive Director of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, which is a group of individuals from across the state whose efforts are directed toward enacting human rights legislation and establishing a formal state human rights commission. She has also served as chair of the Fargo Human Relations Commission.

1L Nick Walberg will also be speaking for a few minutes about the new LGBT/Ally student organization forming at the law school. The group hopes to be active at the local and state level, and anyone interested in the legal issues currently facing LGBT North Dakotans and their families is invited to get involved.