Biography

Erin Beth Harrist (she/they) is the Director of The Legal Aid Society’s LGBTQ+ Law and Policy Unit where she leads strategic litigation and policy efforts to advance LGBTQ+ liberation. In collaboration with Legal Aid’s Prisoners’ Rights Project and Criminal Defense Practice, she represents transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex (TGNCNBI) clients incarcerated in the New York City jails and the New York State prison system in their fight for safer housing and access to transition-related care. They are currently litigating Smith v. Gonzalez-Russell et al., 22-cv-07384 (SDNY), a civil rights case in which a transgender man challenges the invasive and traumatic assault he suffered when he was forced to undergo a genital examination against his will. Erin also trains The Legal Aid Society’s over 2,000 staff members on how to support and affirm LGBTQ+ clients. 

Prior to joining The Legal Aid Society in March 2020, Erin led litigation and policy efforts to advance the rights of LGB+ and TGNCNBI people at the NY affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union for over seven years. During that time, they worked with school districts to ensure they provide a safe and affirming environment for TGNCNBI youth, including by ensuring access to sex-segregated facilities consistent with a student’s gender identity. They have advocated with police departments and sheriffs’ offices to adopt policies prohibiting discriminatory treatment of LGB+ and TGNCNBI people and protecting them from abuse and harassment in custody and has supervised several cases against police and corrections officers for unlawful and inhumane treatment of women on the basis of their gender identity. 

In addition to her work on LGB+ and TGNCNBI rights, Erin has also led litigation establishing that farmworkers have a right to organize under the New York State Constitution and holding police departments accountable for the use of excessive force against minors. 

Erin graduated from Columbia College in 2002 and received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2007.