Attorney Shelbi Day Will Be Based In Tampa; Field Coordinator Dave Ganim Will Fight Marriage Amendment Statewide
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 4, 2008
CONTACT:
ACLU of Florida Communications Office, 786-363-2737 or media@aclufl.org
MIAMI – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida today announced the expansion of its statewide LGBT Advocacy Project with the addition of legal and field staff in its Tampa and Miami offices. “Our LGBT Advocacy Project has worked hard for the past two years to become a leading statewide gay rights organization. We are thrilled to expand our staff so we can help more gay, lesbian, and transgender Floridians achieve full citizenship,” said Robert Rosenwald, director of the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project.
Shelbi Day joins the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project as a staff attorney based in the ACLU of Florida’s West Central Florida regional office, located in Tampa. She joins the ACLU after working for over a year as a staff attorney in the Southern Regional Office of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), where she advocated on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clients and their families through litigation, public education and outreach, and public policy advocacy.
“We’re happy to welcome Shelbi and her expertise to the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project. Her legal skills will greatly enhance our efforts to significantly affect the lives of LGBT people in our state,” said Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida.
Prior to working with NCLR, Shelbi was employed by Southern Legal Counsel, Inc., initially as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and later as a staff attorney, litigating a diverse range of civil rights cases. From 2002 to 2003, Shelbi served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Wilson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Shelbi holds a law degree from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, which she attained with high honors. In addition, Day earned a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida. She earned her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Missouri State University. While at UF, her master’s thesis explored the viability of using human rights law to address sexual orientation-based discrimination and persecution in Ecuador. During law school and graduate school, Day focused her studies on human rights, gender, and sexual orientation, and she earned graduate certificates in International Law and Women’s Studies.
In addition, Dave Ganim recently joined the LGBT Advocacy Project as statewide field coordinator working on our ballot initiative fighting the proposed Constitutional Amendment #2. He will be based in the ACLU of Florida’s Miami headquarters. He will focus on marshalling the ACLU of Florida’s 30,000+ members and supporters to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment that claims to ban gay marriage, but in reality threatens to take away benefits and basic protection such as hospital visitation from all unmarried couples, whether gay or straight.
Dave brings to this job a wealth of campaign experience. He served as the Southwest Ohio Campaign Coordinator and Statewide Faith Initiative Director of Smoke Free Ohio, which resulted in a landmark ballot victory concerning second-hand smoke. In his post with that campaign, Dave recruited and trained key volunteers as well as faith leaders to get the target number of signatures, and served as media spokesperson for both Cincinnati and Dayton. In the Cincinnati-Dayton metropolitan area, where Dave was responsible for the grassroots campaign, the measure passed by a nearly two-thirds majority. Dave also served as the Policy Manager for Tobacco Free Ohio, and as the American Heart Association’s Advocacy Director for Southwest Ohio. In 2000, he received the American Heart Association’s Advocacy of the Year Award.
The ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Project serves Florida’s statewide LGBT community through litigation, public education, and grass roots advocacy. The Project has enjoyed victories, both legal and political, since its inception in December 2005. Project lawyers have prevailed in court, protecting the right of students to form a gay-straight alliance in Okeechobee County schools, the right to come out and to advocate for the rights of gay students in Holmes County schools, and the right of transgender students to a safe and secure education in Santa Rosa County Schools.
On the legislative front, the LGBT Advocacy Project has taken a leading role in ensuring that Florida’s representatives know that fair-minded heterosexual Floridians stand united with the LGBT community, seeking repeal of Florida’s ban on gay adoption, defeat of the proposed constitutional amendment on marriage, and passage of basic protection for LGBT students and adults from harassment and discrimination. At the local level, LGBT Advocacy Project volunteers have successfully helped secure passage of Miami-Dade County’s new domestic partner registry ordinance and Pinellas County’s new law banning discrimination based upon sexual orientation.
About the ACLU of Florida
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information, visit our Web site at: www.aclufl.org.
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