Bio
Joshua Block is a senior attorney with the National ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Projects. He has won landmark cases protecting the rights of transgender people, including Grimm v. Gloucester County, the first federal court of appeals decision recognizing that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Josh was a member of the legal team that litigated Obergefell v Hodges and United States v. Windsor before the Supreme Court, and he has litigated cases seeking marriage for same-sex couples in Kansas, Missouri, Utah, and Virginia.
Josh also leads the LGBTQ Project’s work on freedom of speech and expression, including challenges to the censorship of LGBTQ library materials and bans on drag performances. The rest of his litigation docket covers a wide range of issues, including employment discrimination, attempts to use religion to discriminate, access to healthcare for transgender people, and military service. Josh's litigation against former President Trump's ban on military service for transgender people was featured in the award-winning documentary The Fight. In 2012, he was named one of the “Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40″ by the LGBT Bar Association. He has also served as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School where he taught the school’s LGBT Rights Litigation Seminar. Josh is a graduate of Amherst College and of Yale Law School. He clerked for Judge Robert D. Sack on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Second Circuit.
Featured work
Jun 29, 2022
It’s 2022 and Two Books Are on Trial for ‘Obscenity’
Aug 27, 2020
4 Quotes from Gavin Grimm’s Latest Victory
May 23, 2018
A Court Ruling in Gavin Grimm’s Case Is a Very Big Deal
Sep 16, 2016
A New Front in the Religious Right’s Fight Against Transgender People
Aug 4, 2016
Did the Supreme Court Really Just Issue an Emergency Order to Stop a 17-Year-Old Transgender Boy From Using the Boys Bathroom at School?
Oct 21, 2015
'All I Want to Do Is Be a Normal Child and Use the Restroom in Peace.'
Jul 27, 2015
Gavin Grimm Stood Up for Himself. Now We’re Standing With Him.
Jun 24, 2014
Ruling In Horrific LGBT Bullying Case Should Be A Wake-Up Call For Congress To Finally Pass SNDA