From the ACLU, this is at Liberty. I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU, and for this one final episode, your host.

I couldn't be more proud to bring you this conversation with my colleague La La Zanelle, the ACLU's trans justice campaign manager.

It's one of my very favorite kinds of episodes of At Liberty.

It's a timely conversation with an ACLU insider who speaks with passion and poetry about her life and her work.

Even though this conversation was recorded live in studio before we shut down our offices

in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it still feels extremely timely.

The week we're releasing this episode falls at the same time as Juneteenth and during Pride Month.

We've seen thousands of people take to the streets

to demonstrate and demand that people recognize that black trans lives matter. And last but not least,

the Supreme Court handed down a decision in a landmark ACLU case argued by our legal director David Cole,

holding that employment discrimination on the basis of sex, which is prohibited under Title VII

of the Civil Rights Act, includes discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender

people. Now, under federal law, it's unlawful to fire, bisexual, and transgender people.

Now, under federal law, it's unlawful to fire someone just because they're queer or trans.

La La and I talked about the state of the law, the state of the movement, and her personal journey to the ACLU.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did,

and I hope you learn as much as I did as well.

There's a growing movement to decriminalize sex work in the United States.

Currently, it's illegal to either buy or sell sex in almost every state.

And while bans on sex work are often put in place with good intentions,

the impact can be devastating on the people most in need of help.

The effort to decriminalize sex work isn't just about normalizing the profession.

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