Temple University Beasley School of Law Presents a Community Conversation Legislative Attacks on the Transgender Community

Amanda M. Cappelletti ‘17, is a Pennsylvania senator representing the Seventeenth Senatorial District, covering parts of Montgomery and Delaware Counties and an attorney with her Masters of Public Health. Since being elected to the Pennsylvania Senate, Senator Cappelletti has been an active voice in the fight for anti-discrimination laws and to remove barriers for people who want to live as their authentic selves. Senator Cappelletti led the effort to introduce the Name Change Reform Legislative Package with other Democratic Senators to ease the burdens that people face when legally changing their names in Pennsylvania. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ Equality Caucus, Senator Cappelletti continues to work towards a more inclusive, equal, and welcoming Pennsylvania through her efforts in the Senate and at home in the District. 

Adam Herpolsheimer is a Law and Policy Analyst with the Policy Surveillance Program at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law Center for Public Health Law Research. In addition to their work at the Center, Adam is a doctoral student in the Religion Department at Temple. They research the intersections between feminist theory and the formation of transgender identities. Mx. Herpolsheimer recently published an article in Foucault Studies titled “Plague, Foucault, Camus” that situates the work of both philosophers on absurdity, governmentality, and truth all within the context of plague/COVID-19.

Dara Purvis is Associate Dean for Research and Partnerships and Professor of Law at Penn State Law and will join the Temple Law faculty in Fall 2024. She is a scholar of family law, feminist legal theory, masculinities, and sexuality, gender identity, and the law. Her work examines gendered impacts of the law and proposes neutralizing reforms, most recently in the context of how the law defines parenthood. Professor Purvis has been published in, among others, the California Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Florida State Law Review, Michigan State Law Review, Case Western Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Cambridge University Press, and The New York Times.