“How an LGBTQ+ Rights Case Could Affect the Response to COVID-19” by Patrick Hornbeck

Photo by Silvestri Matteo on Unsplash. This article is part of our “Law and Religion Under Pressure: A One-Year Pandemic Retrospective” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that it was last term, rather than this term, when the U.S. Supreme Court

“COVID and Egalitarian Catholic Women’s Movements” by Mary Anne Case

Photo of cells by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Public Domain) A virtual conference organized in partnership with Brigham Young University Law School, Emory University Law School, Notre Dame Law School, St. John’s University School of Law, and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. View the full video and browse all essays here.

“Non-Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation” by Johan D. van der Vyver

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels The judgment of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, decided on June 15, 2020, is, to say the least, quite controversial. It relates to non-discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment practices and has been applauded by many who champion the legal protection

“Polygamy in a Time of Pandemic: Hard Times Ahead” by Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif

Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia / photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0 This article is part of our “Reflecting on COVID-19” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. As we transition into the month of June, Malaysia enters the twelfth week of its government-enforced Movement Control Order (MCO), which put its population

“Why Does the Catholic Church Insist on Celibacy?” by Rafael Domingo

Pixabay (License) An earlier Spanish-language version of this essay was recently published on CNN en Español. Recently, the Catholic Church has begun an internal conversation about ordaining married men as priests. This move would mark a significant change from what has been the settled policy of the Latin Church for a thousand years, under which

“Arbitration and Church Governance in the UMC’s Navigation of LGBTQ Conflict” by Amin Sadri

(Abbey, Church, Interiors image) (Pixabay) Many members of the United Methodist Church (UMC) woke up to unexpected news earlier this month when it was announced some leaders of the UMC had met in private and negotiated through mediation the terms for a division of the denomination. The UMC, one of the largest Christian denominations in

“Islam and Women’s Rights: Postcolonial Challenges” by Shannon Dunn

Wall, Arabic, Alhambra Image (Pixabay) This article is part of our “Natural Law, Human Rights, and ‘Unalienable Rights” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s formation of the Commission on Unalienable Rights has generated controversy among human rights advocates, in part because of the

“A Natural Law for Queer and Racial Justice” by Craig Ford

Image by Robert Jones from Pixabay This article is part of our “Natural Law, Human Rights, and ‘Unalienable Rights” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. In this brief essay, I propose that the natural law and social justice traditions can together form a powerful partnership that champions anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic causes.

Transgender Rights, Bathroom Bills, and the Families of Transgender Youth: A Conversation with Director Vlada Knowlton

Director Vlada Knowlton sat down with the Emory University community to talk about her recent film The Most Dangerous Year. You can watch the trailer for the film above and explore video excerpts from the Q&A below. Gender is a matter of perennial concern in legal and religious spheres, and its implications are often profound: a

“The Ordination of Transgender Candidates in the Church of England” by Christopher Grout

Cover image: Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, UK. Original image by Philipp Haegi licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Editors’ note: The terms ‘transgender’ and ‘transsexual’ have connotations that have changed over time and in different contexts. The author of this article uses terminology that is consistent with the sources and documents cited herein.   The Church of England (‘the Church’)