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ACLU to Honor Attorney as Advocate of the Year - Lisa Brunner Helped Change Missouri?s Foster-Care Guidelines
November 3, 2007
Kansas City attorney Lisa Brunner?s work in LGBT rights will be recognized Nov. 3 when she is named Advocate of the Year by the regional affiliate of the ACLU. She and other local civil libertarians will be honored at the Liberty Awards dinner by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas and Western Missouri.
Brunner, whose victory in one case helped change Missouri?s foster-care system guidelines to allow LGBT people to participate, works at the law firm Husch & Eppenberger. She is a 1988 graduate of Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kan., and a 1993 graduate of the University
of Kansas.
During Brunner?s first year at New York Law School, one of her professors was Nadine Strossen, who has been president of the ACLU since 1991.
It was Strossen?s book, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women?s Rights, that piqued Brunner?s interest in constitutional law issues and the practice of law. In the book, Strossen argues that regulating the sex industry is paternalistic, and that in the long run this regulation hurts women because it drives the industry underground. Strossen says efforts to enact laws criminalizing the sex industry suggest that women cannot make their own decisions and that they instead require the government?s help in determining the proper paths for their lives.
Brunner?s association with Strossen is what started her relationship with the ACLU in 1996. After studying under Strossen for the initial part of her postgraduate education, Brunner returned to the Midwest. Her first real-world, law-related job was as a summer intern at the ACLU?s Kansas City offices. She completed her law degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1999 and was subsequently admitted to the bars of Kansas and Missouri.
Brunner joined the Kansas City office of Husch & Eppenberger in May 2002. Her primary practice there involves litigation and counseling, including advising and defending health-care professionals, business owners and human resource professionals on the prevention, management and resolution of disputes. She also does work in LGBT family law, advising same-sex couples and LGBT individuals regarding estate planning, prenuptial agreements, donor insemination contracts and relationship dissolution, both as an advocate and a mediator.
Brunner achieved one of Missouri?s top 10 defense verdicts of 2006, and the Kansas City Business Journal named her Best of the Bar in August 2007.
?You don?t have to be an attorney to make an impact on LGBT rights,? says Brunner. She suggests getting involved with organizations such as the ACLU, PROMO, the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Greater Kansas City, PFLAG, GLSEN-KC or MAFA to help.
As part of her work in the community, Brunner sits on the legal panel and serves as co-chair of the LGBT Task Force of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri. The LGBT Task Force formed in 2003 to address a barrage of statutory and constitutional attacks on the LGBT community such as the anti-gay marriage amendments offered and passed in both Kansas and Missouri. The Task Force is analogous to the national organization?s LGBT Project (aclu.org/lgbt), to which Brunner serves as liaison.
When a person or group feels like a victim of anti-LGBT discrimination, a complaint can be filed with the local ACLU. The legal panel then takes up the complaint at its monthly meeting to determine whether there is a constitutional issue in play. If the panel feels the complaint merits further attention, the next legal steps are then taken.
Most civil liberties issues with which the ACLU deals are resolved through means such as writing a letter to the offending party stating that the organization is aware of the conflict and that the victim of discrimination has the law on his or her side. Often this is enough to bring the discriminating party into line with the law.
One of the main reasons cited for Brunner?s Advocate of the Year honor is her work in Johnston v. Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS), a case that she won, rewriting Missouri?s foster-care system guidelines to allow responsible, loving lesbian and gay Missourians to apply to serve as foster parents to children in need.
In Johnston v. Missouri DSS, Lisa Johnston applied to the Missouri Department of Social Services to become a foster parent in 2003. Up to this point, she and her partner, Dawn Roginski, had devoted their lives to helping children. Johnston holds a bachelor?s degree in human development and family with a special emphasis on child development, and works in the field. Roginski holds a master?s degree in counseling, a master?s degree in divinity and a bachelor?s degree in psychology; she worked as a therapist and chaplain at the time of the application.
Johnston and Roginski were also very involved in their church, and this involvement would have supplied an additional support mechanism for them and any foster children who might come to live in their home. Roginski has since been called to serve as a minister in a West Coast Lutheran church.
The couple passed a home-site visit by DSS, converted a small room in their home into a nursery and had attended seven of the nine required training sessions for foster parent licensure. After this point, the couple was told that their application for a foster parent license was being denied because the two were ?not of reputable character.? According to an unwritten DSS rule, gay or lesbian persons were not to serve as foster parents in Missouri.
The initial denial of their application for a foster care license came in 2003, and in March 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of Johnston in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mo., seeking to overturn the discriminatory rule. Brunner, with attorneys from the national ACLU?s Lesbian & Gay Rights Project, represented Johnston in the matter.
In February 2006, Jackson County Circuit Judge Sandra Midkiff ruled in favor of Johnston, invalidating the DSS decision to deny her a foster parenting license ? a victory for both children and potential foster parents. In July 2006, the Missouri Department of Social Services finally promulgated a new rule allowing open lesbian and gay Missourians to apply to serve as foster parents.
The Liberty Awards will take place at 6 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Athenaeum, 900 E. Linwood Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. The Founder?s Award will be presented to political cartoonist Lee Judge, who will give a presentation highlighting his controversial cartoons and censorship. Volunteer of the Year will go to Arzie Umali, and the Dick Kurtenbach Racial Justice Award will be given to Mahnaz Shabbir.
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The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri just
published its second handbook on LGBT rights, and it is on sale for $5. Topics include estate planning, gay kids? prom date dust-ups, etc. Call the local ACLU office to obtain a copy. For more information about the regional ACLU affiliate, go to aclukswmo.org.
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