Personal life
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Coleman lives in Durham, North Carolina and is married to attorney and law professor James Earl Coleman. They have two children.
Doriane Coleman | |
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| Born | Doriane Lambelet Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Nationality | American, Swiss |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation(s) | Law professor, Writer |
| Spouse | James Earl Coleman |
| Children | 2 |
Doriane Lambelet Coleman is a Swiss-American professor at Duke Law School, where she specializes in scholarship on women, sports, children, and law. [1] Her most recent writing has centered on sex, its evolving definition, and the implications of this evolution for law and society. The first two articles in this series – "Sex in Sport" and "Re-affirming the Value of the Sports Exception to Title IX's General Non-Discrimination Rule" – have been widely read and used in the development of eligibility criteria for the female category. A third article – "Sex Neutrality" – traces the history of sex in law and addresses the merits of a final move from sex skepticism to sex-blindness. Her book, On Sex and Gender – A Commonsense Approach (2024), expands on these themes for a broader audience. [2]
Coleman was born in Lausanne, Switzerland as Doriane Lambelet. [3] She attended Villanova University, becoming one of the first women to receive a track scholarship there. [4] She then transferred to Cornell where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982. [3] She attended Georgetown Law, where she was an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1988. [2]
Before law school, Coleman ran the 800 meters in collegiate and international competition. She was a multiple All American, All East, and All Ivy athlete, the U.S. National Collegiate Indoor Champion in the 800 meters in 1982, the U.S. National Indoor Champion in the 4 x 400 meters relay in 1982, [5] and the Swiss National Champion in the 800 meters in 1982 and 1983. [6] Over the course of her athletic career she competed for Villanova and Cornell, the Swiss and U.S. National Teams, [3] Athletics West, the Santa Monica and Atoms Track Clubs, and Lausanne Sports. [2]
After law school Coleman worked at the Washington, D.C. law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. [2] While there she helped develop the world’s first random, out-of-competition drug-testing program for USA Track & Field. [7]
She began her academic career at Howard University School of Law in 1992 and has been at Duke University School of Law since 1994. At Duke University, Coleman is a Faculty Fellow and Member of the Advisory Council of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and a Faculty Associate of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at the School of Medicine. She is also a member of the University’s Athletic Council and co-director of the Law School’s Center for Sports Law and Policy. [2]
She has published numerous works on parental rights including two on the mature minor doctrine about whether minors can legally consent to medical treatment without parental consent or over parental objections. [8] She has written about sports governance and the Olympic Movement including about the Court of Arbitration for Sport. [9]
Her academic writing has appeared in many legal and medical journals including in such publications as the Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, William and Mary Law Review, Law & Contemporary Problems, American Journal of Law and Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics, Journal of Law and the Biosciences, American Journal of International Law Unbound, and the International Sports Law Review. [2] Her op-eds about women in sports have appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times . [10] [11]
In 2016, Coleman authored an op-ed arguing against a North Carolina law that barred transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. [12] In 2021, she co-authored an op-ed arguing that North Carolina should not bar transgender girls from all female sports. [13] In 2022, she condemned North Carolina's H.B. 358, a bill that prevented transgender girls from participating in high school girls' sports, for drawing unfair conclusions from her research. [14] She was co-chair of Duke Law's Law and Contemporary Problems when they published a special issue entitled "Sex in Law." [15] The journal contained an essay by Kathleen Stock that some claimed was transphobic and eight student editors resigned rather than be associated with the essay. [16]
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Coleman lives in Durham, North Carolina and is married to attorney and law professor James Earl Coleman. They have two children.
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. This is Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235, codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688.
Sex verification in sports occurs because eligibility of athletes to compete is restricted whenever sporting events are limited to a single sex, which is generally the case, as well as when events are limited to mixed-sex teams of defined composition. Practice has varied tremendously over time, across borders and by competitive level. Issues have arisen multiple times in the Olympic games and other high-profile sporting competitions, for example allegations that certain male athletes attempted to compete as women or that certain female athletes had intersex conditions perceived to give unfair advantage. The topic of sex verification is related to the more recent question of how to treat transgender people in sports. Sex verification is not typically conducted on athletes competing in the male category because there is generally no perceived competitive advantage for a female or intersex athlete to compete in male categories.
In the context of gender, passing is when someone is perceived as a gender they identify as or are attempting to be seen as, rather than their sex assigned at birth. Historically, this was common among women who served in occupations where women were prohibited, such as in combat roles in the military. For transgender people, it is when the person is perceived as cisgender instead of the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, someone who is a transgender man is passing if he is perceived as a cisgender man.
Nancy Hogshead-Makar is an American swimmer who represented the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics, where she won three gold medals and one silver medal. She is currently the CEO of Champion Women, an organization leading targeted efforts to advocate for equality and accountability in sports. Her areas of focus include establishing nationwide equal play, such as traditional Title IX compliance in athletic departments, protecting athletes from sexual harassment, abuse and assault, as well as combatting employment, pregnancy, and LGBT discrimination. In 2012, she began working on legislative changes to ensure that club and Olympic sports athletes were protected from sexual abuse. In 2018, the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017, which she co-wrote, was enacted.
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.
The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health care. A major goal of transgender activism is to allow changes to identification documents to conform with a person's current gender identity without the need for gender-affirming surgery or any medical requirements, which is known as gender self-identification. It is part of the broader LGBT rights movements.
In the United States, the rights of transgender people vary considerably by jurisdiction. In recent decades, there has been an expansion of federal, state, and local laws and rulings to protect transgender Americans; however, many rights remain unprotected, and some rights are being eroded. Since 2020, there has been a national movement by conservative/right-wing politicians and organizations to target transgender rights. There has been a steady increase in the number of anti-transgender bills introduced each year, especially in Republican-led states.
Paisley Currah is political scientist and author, known for his work on the transgender rights movement. His book, Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity examines the politics of sex classification in the United States. He is a professor of political science and women's and gender studies at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was born in Ontario, Canada, received a B.A. from Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario and an M.A and Ph.D. in government from Cornell University. He lives in Brooklyn.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Kansas have federal protections, but many face some legal challenges on the state level that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Kansas under the US Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy laws that only apply to same-sex sexual acts. The state has prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations since 2020. Proposed bills restricting preferred gender identity on legal documents, bans on transgender people in women's sports, bathroom use restrictions, among other bills were vetoed numerous times by Democratic Governor Laura Kelly since 2021. However, many of Kelly's vetoes were overridden by the Republican supermajority in the Kansas legislature and became law.
Susan O'Neal Stryker is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative at the University of Arizona, and is currently on leave while holding an appointment as Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership at Mills College. Stryker serves on the Advisory Council of METI and the Advisory Board of the Digital Transgender Archive. Stryker, who is a transgender woman, is the author of several books about LGBT history and culture. She is a leading scholar of transgender history.
Anne Alexandra Lawrence is an American psychologist, sexologist, and physician who has published extensively on gender dysphoria, transgender people, and paraphilias. Lawrence is a transgender woman and self-identifies as autogynephilic. She is best known for her 2013 book on autogynephilia, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, which has been regarded by Ray Blanchard as the definitive text on the subject. Lawrence is one of the major researchers in the area of Blanchard's etiological typology of transgender women and has been one of the most major proponents of the theory. While Blanchard's typology and autogynephilia are highly controversial subjects and are not accepted by many transgender women and academics, some, such as Lawrence, identify with autogynephilia. Lawrence's work also extends beyond Blanchard's typology, to transgender women and to transition more generally.
Transgender studies, also called trans studies or trans* studies, is an interdisciplinary field of academic research dedicated to the study of gender identity, gender expression, and gender embodiment, as well as to the study of various issues of relevance to transgender and gender variant populations. Interdisciplinary subfields of transgender studies include applied transgender studies, transgender history, transgender literature, transgender media studies, transgender anthropology and archaeology, transgender psychology, and transgender health. The research theories within transgender studies focus on cultural presentations, political movements, social organizations and the lived experience of various forms of gender nonconformity. The discipline emerged in the early 1990s in close connection to queer theory. Non-transgender-identified peoples are often also included under the "trans" umbrella for transgender studies, such as intersex people, crossdressers, drag artists, third gender individuals, and genderqueer people.
The participation of transgender people in competitive sports, a traditionally sex-segregated institution, is a controversial issue, particularly the inclusion of transgender women and girls in women's sports.
Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination "on the basis of sex" in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government. The Obama administration interpreted Title IX to cover discrimination on the basis of assigned sex, gender identity, and transgender status. The Trump administration determined that the question of access to sex-segregated facilities should be left to the states and local school districts to decide. The validity of the executive's position is being tested in the federal courts.
Anti-LGBT curriculum laws are laws approved by various U.S. states that limit the discussion of sexuality and gender identity in public schools. In theory, these laws mainly apply to sex ed courses, but they can also be applied to other parts of the school curriculum as well as to extracurricular activities such as sports and organizations such as gay–straight alliances. In July 2022, a wave of anti-LGBT curriculum resurgence saw ten such laws beginning to take effect in six different states. Some states enacting these new laws appear to have mirrored similar laws from other states.
Andraya Yearwood is an American transgender student athlete from Connecticut. Yearwood began competing on a high school girls' team in early April 2017 and won first place in the girls 100- and 200-meter dashes. Yearwood's second-place finish at the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) 100-yard dash finals on June 4, 2017, behind another transgender student, gained international media attention.
Veronica Ivy, formerly Rachel McKinnon, is a Canadian competitive cyclist and transgender rights activist. In 2018, she became the first transgender world track cycling champion by placing first at the UCI Women's Masters Track World Championship for the women's 35–44 age bracket.
Lia Catherine Thomas is an American swimmer. She was the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, having won the women's 500-yard freestyle event in 2022, before being barred from competing in women's events by World Aquatics. Thomas' career has been a part of the public debate about transgender women in women's sports.
Transphobia in the United States has changed over time. Understanding and acceptance of transgender people have both decreased and increased during the last few decades depending on the details of the issues which have been facing the public. Various governmental bodies in the United States have enacted anti-transgender legislation. Social issues in the United States also reveal a level of transphobia. Because of transphobia, transgender people in the U.S. face increased levels of violence and intimidation. Cisgender people can also be affected by transphobia.
The Fairness In Women's Sports Act is a common title for legislation passed in Idaho, Florida, and Arkansas that restricts participation in interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, club athletic teams, and any sports sponsored by a public school or university based on the biological sex of the individual. The legislation was introduced in response to concerns that allowing transgender women to compete in women's sports would create an unfair advantage due to their physiological differences. Legislation of this nature has been introduced in several states across the US and is part of a national debate over whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in sports teams based on their gender identity. Supporters of the laws argue that it is necessary to maintain fair competition and protect the integrity of women's sports, while opponents argue that they are discriminatory and unjust. Much of the current legislation is facing legal challenges and criticism from advocates for transgender rights, who argue that they perpetuate harmful stereotypes and ignore the diversity of gender identities.