So far this year, Columbia University Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has secured political asylum in the U.S. for a gay Jamaican man and for a lesbian from Turkmenistan, who feared persecution for her sexual orientation and political opinions in that mostly Muslim country. These are just two of the cases being handled by the fledgling clinic embarking on an emerging field — sexuality and gender law.

Directed by Suzanne B. Goldberg, who is renowned for her work and teaching in the area of sexuality and gender law, the clinic, which began in September 2006, is the first sexuality and gender law clinic at a law school to be staffed full time by a faculty member. “One of the goals is to encourage and prod other law schools to develop similar clinics,” says Goldberg.

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