The last two months have been a whirlwind in NCLR’s case on behalf of Jennifer Tobits, a widow standing up for her marriage in the face of relentless attacks by the parents of her deceased wife, Sarah "Ellyn" Farley, who died of cancer a year ago. Jennifer and NCLR attorneys are fighting a two-front war, litigating in both Pennsylvania and Illinois to win recognition that same-sex couples deserve equal dignity and respect when one spouse dies.

In Pennsylvania, Ellyn’s parents have challenged Jennifer’s right to be treated as Ellyn’s surviving spouse and to receive death benefits from Ellyn’s employer, a law firm. Ellyn’s parents have claimed that the law firm cannot recognize same-sex spouses in their own benefits plan—a private contract—because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Pennsylvania’s mini-DOMA statute. The federal trial court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is hearing the case.

In Illinois, Ellyn’s parents have tried to take over the administration of Ellyn’s estate, which would give them additional power to continue to try and erase Ellyn and Jennifer’s marriage and invade their privacy.

Jennifer should not have had to spend the entire first year after losing her wife fending off attacks by Ellyn’s parents. But NCLR is proud to stand beside her, helping fight for her relationship, and working with dedicated and skilled co-counsel in both cases. In Pennsylvania, Jennifer’s counsel team includes Ben Jerner, Tiffany Palmer, and Rebecca Levin of Jerner & Palmer P.C., and Teresa Renaker, Julie Wilensky, and Nina Wasow of Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C. In Illinois, NCLR is joined by Dan Ebner and Ray Prather of Prather Ebner LLP, and Elizabeth Deeley, Sarah Piepmeier, and Dmitriy Tishyevich of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

We will continue to stand with Jennifer until her marriage to Ellyn receives the full respect it deserves.

Read more about the case.

When she was just 12 years old, Ebonie found the courage to come out as a lesbian to her mother. It was the summer before her seventh-grade year, and when classes started at her middle school in Minnesota’s Osseo Area School District, she walked proudly through the halls, with the support of all those around her.

No one at that school hassled her about her sexual orientation or non-gender conformity, but all that changed when her family moved and she transferred to Jackson Middle School for her eighth grade year. Jackson is in the Anoka-Hennepin School District—Minnesota’s largest school district with more than 38,000 students, in the suburbs 20 minutes north of Minneapolis. The taunts started the very first day she walked through her new school’s doors, with classmates staring, pointing, and hurling degrading insults at Ebonie, who often wears baggy pants, oversized t-shirts, and her hair pulled back in braids. They taunted her with names like “dyke,” “it,” and “he-she” nearly every day, with the insults growing vulgar and violent as students purposefully bumped into her in the hallways. One student even punched her in the stomach after calling her a “he-she.”

Ebonie is the latest student to join the lawsuits filed this summer by the National Center for Lesbian Rights against the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where a policy prevents teachers from addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, which contributes to the hostile anti-LGBT atmosphere in the district.

“It’s just wrong. No one should be harassed like that just because of who they are,” said Ebonie, who just started ninth grade at an Anoka-Hennepin high school. “It was even worse because the school acted like it wasn’t a big deal and treated me like I was the problem. I felt really angry and sad all the time. By the end of the year, I pretty much stopped going to school.”

Like the other five students involved in the lawsuits, Ebonie—referred to as “E.R.” in the lawsuit—turned to her teachers and school administrators repeatedly, but far too often nothing was done to stop the bullies from tormenting her. Instead, Ebonie was left to struggle on her own, with district staff frequently either ignoring the harassment or responding with, at most, a weak “knock it off.”

On one occasion, a student scrawled anti-LGBT slurs on a class binder that included Ebonie’s upcoming assignments and homework. When Ebonie told the teacher, the school administrators took the binder away—keeping it for about two weeks despite her repeated requests—resulting in her being unable to complete much of her classwork until she eventually received a replacement.

Each of the students involved in the lawsuits experienced similar treatment in schools across the district. Despite the painful experiences they have endured, the students and their families are hopeful that the lawsuit will lead to improved school district policies and training that will protect other kids from the kinds of harm and discrimination that they went through.

Ebonie is represented by NCLR and the law firm of Culberth & Lienemann, LLP. Her attorneys are working closely with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Faegre & Benson, LLP, who are co-counsel with NCLR in the companion case of Doe v. Anoka- Hennepin School District No. 11.

Learn more about the cases.