University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Professor Clifford Rosky Available to Discuss Lawsuit in Utah Challenging "No Promo Homo" Laws.

Equality Utah recently filed a lawsuit challenging state laws that ban positive speech about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Utah public schools. The lawsuit claims that the laws violate the U.S. Constitution and federal education law by discriminating against LGBT people and restricting the First Amendment rights of students and teachers. It is the first of lawsuit in the country to challenge a statewide anti-gay curriculum laws, commonly known as “no promo homo” laws. Clifford Rosky, a professor at the University’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, is available to offer legal perspective on the newly filed case. Rosky has extensively researched anti-gay curriculum laws, and is currently writing a comprehensive study of this subject. He serves on the Equality Utah Advisory Board and previously served as Equality Utah Board Chair. Rosky teaches courses on constitutional law, criminal law, and sexuality, gender and law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Before joining the faculty at the University of Utah, Rosky served as a research fellow for the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law & Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law. While at the Williams Institute, he submitted an amicus brief in the successful same-sex marriage appeal to the California Supreme Court, developed teaching materials for a casebook on sexual orientation and law, and co-authored over 30 demographic reports on lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations in the United States. After moving to Utah, Rosky authored an award-winning article on the Prop 8 case, “Perry v. Schwarzenegger and the Future of Same-Sex Marriage Law.” Rosky was one of the primary authors of SB 296, Utah’s new antidiscrimination law that extends employment and housing protections to LGBTQ people. Utah has been on the front lines in the struggle for LGBTQ rights in recent years, and Rosky has fielded multiple interviews with the press, including the Economist, Associated Press, L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, Washington Post, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera. He is available on his cell phone at 801-230-9636 or email: [email protected].