Photo credit: Angela Torregoza
I want to thank everyone for having me here tonight, and especially my families both bio and chosen, my amazing partners and polycule, my mentors, colleagues and clients. Also my therapist and my dog. We don’t do anything worthwhile by ourselves, and my being recognized here tonight is no exception. My father once said of me “Moira was socially engineered by a village,” and I hope everyone in this room recognizes themself to be part of that village.
For anyone unfamiliar with my work, I don’t work in a single practice area as much as I do a little bit of paid work, mostly writing wills, to support the mostly pro bono work I do for queer and trans and two spirit communities, especially incarcerated queer and trans folks. I currently represent Chelsea Manning, in prison for her refusal to give testimony before a grand jury investigating the publication of her damning disclosures of U.S. military misconduct. I also represent green-scare prisoner Marius Mason in his efforts to access a name change and gender-affirming health care, and as a result of that work will shortly be issuing a constitutional challenge to a Texas statute forbidding prisoners from changing their names, which should be fun. I spend a lot of time doing agency documents and criminal defense and name changes and parole work for people in our queer communities. I am delighted that my work has meaning and value to you and I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak directly to you about our work and our values as lawyers.