Has the Supreme Court Turned a Corner in Protecting Our Rights?
Holning Lau
The history of the 21st century has mostly been a story of breathtaking progress in the rights of LGBT people. When the century began, in many states sodomy laws that made us felons were still on the books, same-sex marriage seemed a distant dream, and employment discrimination was legal and common. (North Carolina was on the wrong side in all those categories.)
Then in 2003, the US. Supreme Court ruled that criminalizing sex acts between consenting adults violated the right to privacy. In 2015, the Court ruled that denying marriage rights to same-sex couples was unconstitutional discrimination. And in 2020, the Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited job discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.
But in June 2025, the last month of its term, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in U.S. v Skrmetti. By a vote of 6 to 3, the justices upheld Tennessee’s statute prohibiting doctors from administering puberty blockers or hormone treatments to minors for a transgender purpose, even with the consent of the minor’s parents.
The implications of this turn in the court’s direction on LGBT rights – if that’s even what Skrmetti is – are unclear. That’s why the Mary Renault Society program for August is so timely.
Our August speaker will be Holning Lau. He’s a long-time friend of MRS, speaking to us at least 6 times in the last decade, and always a hit with our members. And he’s a good long-time friend to have -- the Willie Person Mangum Distinguished Professor of Law at UNC Law School and a specialist in LGBT law. He co-directs UNC’s Human Rights Law Program and works with students on pro bono projects for LGBT rights. He has consulted on LGBT law internationally and written on LGBT issues in Asia. In one of his talks to us, he foreshadowed the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision on job bias.
Holning grew up in the New York area. He did undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania and law school at the University of Chicago, where he was an editor of the law review. He came to UNC to teach in 2009. In 2013-15 he led the Board of Directors for the North Carolina ACLU. He lives in Raleigh with his husband and their children.
The meeting will be on Sunday, August 24, 2025. We will gather at 7 p.m., eat a potluck dinner at 7:30, and begin the program at 8.