image of Robin Fretwell Wilson

Robin Fretwell Wilson from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Robin Fretwell Wilson will deliver the annual Constitution Day talk at Illinois State University. Her lecture, “Can the Constitution Protect Both LGBT Rights and Religious Liberty?” will be at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, September 15, in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center. The talk, sponsored by the Illinois State chapter of the American Democracy Project, is free and open to the public.

Wilson is the Roger and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law and the director of the Program in Family Law and Policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She specializes in family law and health law, and her research and teaching interests also include biomedical ethics, law and science, children and violence, and insurance.

Working extensively on behalf of state law reform efforts, Wilson recently helped state lawmakers in Utah pass anti-discrimination legislation that balances religious liberty with LGBT rights. In 2007, she received the Citizen’s Legislative Award for her work on changing Virginia’s informed consent law.

Wilson is the author of seven books, including Reconceiving the Family: Critical Reflections on the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution; The Handbook of Children, Culture & Violence; Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty; Health Law and Bioethics: Cases in Context; Domestic Relations: Cases and Materials; and Understanding Family Law.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and World Report, ABA JournalChronicle of Higher Education, Chicago Tribune, CNN Headline News, Good Morning America, ABC News, CBS NewsPhiladelphia InquirerEssence Magazine, The American Prospect, and Al Jazeera, among others. Wilson has presented her research around the world, including China, Israel, Qatar, Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey.

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day commemorate the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, and recognize all who, by birth or by naturalization, have become citizens.

For additional information on Constitution Day or the Illinois State chapter of the American Democracy Project, contact Professor of Politics and Government Noha Shawki at (309) 438-3861.

 

One thought on “Constitution Day speaker to talk LGBT rights and religious liberty

  1. Jim Bennett says:

    She is not a friend of the LGBT community. She works to weaken LGBT civil rights protections using religion to discriminate.