NCTE Awardee Spotlight: Vanita Gupta
Vanita Gupta joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) fresh out of law school. She made a splash on her first case, heading up a legal team that fought for and won the freedom of nearly 50 people — mostly black — who had been wrongfully convicted in Tulia, Texas. After several more years at the LDF, she continued her illustrious career at the American Civil Liberties Union.
With over a decade of experience in civil rights law under her belt, Gupta was a natural choice to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in 2015. Despite her short tenure, she oversaw a historic shift in the division’s actions on transgender issues. From affirming that transgender prisoners should be treated humanely to releasing groundbreaking joint guidance with the Department of Education that informed schools of their duty to treat transgender students equitably, she and her division stood for transgender equality.
The DOJ’s most visible transgender moment was in May 2016, when Gupta and then Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the department’s pending suit against the state of North Carolina for promoting discrimination against transgender people. It was a significant moment for transgender rights, and Gupta took the opportunity — as Attorney General Lynch had just moments before — to address the community directly:
“The complaint we filed today … speaks to all of us who have ever been made to feel inferior — like somehow we just don’t belong in our community, like somehow we just don’t fit in. Let me reassure every transgender individual, right here in America, that you belong just as you are. You are supported. And you are protected.”
Though her time at the Civil Rights Division ended with the Obama administration, Gupta shows no signs of slowing down: she will join the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights as President and CEO in just a few weeks, on June 1.
For her unflagging dedication to advancing civil rights for transgender people — and for all people — NCTE is proud to present Vanita Gupta with the Ally Award at our 14th anniversary event, Forward Together.
This article is the second in a series, profiling honorees at NCTE’s 14th annual event, May 25, 2017. Click here to secure your place at NCTE’s 14th anniversary event, Forward Together.
