Education
- Ph D in History, Yale University, 2018
- JD, Columbia Law School, 2007
- M.St, University of Oxford, 2006
- B.S.F.S., Georgetown University, 2003
Marie-Amélie George
Professor of Law
Marie-Amélie George is an award-winning legal historian and nationally recognized expert on contemporary LGBTQ+ rights. She is the author of Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Legal Recognition, as well as numerous law review and peer reviewed articles that have been published in top journals, including the Northwestern Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Yale Law & Policy Review, Harvard Civil-Rights Civil-Liberties Law Review, and Law & History Review. Her op-eds regularly appear in major media outlets, such as Time, Washington Post, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She is a … Read more »
Courses
LAW 151 Civil Procedure
LAW 207 Evidence
LAW 260 Public Interest Advocacy
LAW 508 Family Law
LAW 618 Regulating Intimacy
MSL 703 MSL: Private Law
Publications
Books
- Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Legal Recognition (Cambridge University Press 2024).
Book Chapters
- The Coming Out of American Law, in Rights in Modern America (David J. Bodenhamer & James W. Ely, Jr. 2022).
- Regulating Same-Sex Sexuality in the Twentieth Century, in The Cambridge History of Sexuality In The United States (forthcoming 2024) (Jen Manion & Nick Syrett).
Articles
- Exploring Identity, 54 Family Law Quarterly 1 (2021).
- Expanding LGBT, 74 Florida Law Review 243 (2021).
- Queering Reproductive Justice, 54 Richmond Law Review 671 (2020).
- Framing Trans Rights, 114 Northwestern University Law Review 555 (2019).
- The LGBT Disconnect: Politics and Perils of Legal Movement Formation, 2018 Wisconsin Law Review 504 (2018).
- Expressive Ends: Understanding Conversion Therapy Bans, 68 Alabama Law Review 793 (2017).
- Bureaucratic Agency: Administering the Transformation of LGBT Rights, 36 Yale Law & Policy Review 83 (2017).
- The Custody Crucible: The Development of Scientific Authority About Gay and Lesbian Parents, 32 Law & History Review 487 (2016).
- Agency Nullification: Defying Bans on Gay and Lesbian Foster and Adoptive Parents, 51 Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Law Review 363 (2016).
- The Harmless Psychopath: Legal Debates Promoting the Decriminalization of Sodomy in the United States, 24 Journal of the History of Sexuality 225 (2015).
- The Modern Mulatto: A Comparative Analysis of the Social and Legal Positions of Mulattoes in the Antebellum South and the Intersex in Contemporary America, 15 Columbia Journal of Gender & Law 665 (2006).
- Gendered Crime, Raced Justice: A Critical Race Feminist Approach to Forensic DNA Databank Expansion, 19 National Black Law Journal 78 (2005).
Other
- The Pre-Publication Gaunlet, Legal History Blog (October 22, 2024).
- Using Oral Histories, Legal History Blog (October 17, 2024).
- Collecting Oral Histories, Legal History Blog (October 14, 2024).
- Writing a History of Progress during a Period of Retrenchment, Legal History Blog (October 10, 2024).
- LGBTQ Rights: Where Do Harris and Trump Stand?, The Conversation (October 10, 2024).
- Legal History from the Ground Up, Legal History Blog (October 7, 2024).
- Introducing Family Matters! (October 3, 2024).
- The False Idea Behind Project 2025's Plans for LGBTQ Rights, Time (September 20, 2024).
- This Year's Pride Month is a Time for Optimism, Not Despair, Miami Herald (June 10, 2024).
- Nex Benedict's suicide coincides with a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws – and some people's misunderstanding about transgender and nonbinary individuals, The Conversation (April 3, 2024).
- Protecting Trans Children: Scientific Uncertainty and Legal Debates Over Child Custody and Access to Care, Bill of Health, Petrie Flom Center, Harvard Law School (September 20, 2023).
- Complicating Conformity, Law and History Review (March 23, 2023).
- "Don't Say Gay' laws harm students already at risk, Atlanta Journal Constitution (February 17, 2023).
- Everyday People Must Save Marriage Equality, Winston-Salem Journal (December 9, 2022).
- Review of Anne Gray Fischer, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification, American Journal of Legal History (June 8, 2022).
- Florida's Bill Restricting LGBTQ Discussion Will Hurt All Children, LGBTQ and Straight, The Washington Post (March 9, 2022).
- Commentary on Commonwealth v. Blache, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Criminal Law Opinions (February 1, 2022).
- State summaries of laws regulating abortion (Florida and Maine)(with Meghan Boone), National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Criminalization of Pregnancy & Reproductive Health State by State Summaries (July 1, 2022).
- False claims of protecting children are fueling anti-trans legislation, The Washington Post (July 6, 2021).
- Letter in response to "Why So Many Mothers Feel Like Failures, N.Y. Times, Mar. 5, 2021 (with Meghan Boone & Jane Aiken) (March 5, 2021).
- The History Behind the Latest LGBTQ Rights Case at the Supreme Court, Washington Post (November 17, 2020).
- The fight against AIDS has shaped how potential covid-19 drugs will reach patients, Washington Post (April 29, 2020).
- Review of Raising Government Children: A History of Foster Care and the American Welfare State Catherine E. Rymph, 52 Journal of Social History 316 (2019).
Presentations
- LGBTQ+ Advocacy in Healthcare
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, November 4, 2024 - Finding Family: Looking at the History of LGBTQIA+ Youth
Fordham Law School, February 29, 2024 - Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Family Recognition,
Yale University, February 13, 2024 - Teaching Tolerance: The Queer Family Comes Out Against Hate
Michigan Law School Public Law Workshop, January 24, 2024 - Confronting Crisis: Domestic Partnerships During the AIDS Epidemic
American Society for Legal History, October 27, 2023 - Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Family Recognition
UNC Law Faculty Workshop, September 29, 2023 - Teaching Tolerance: The Queer Family Comes Out Against Hate
Family Law Scholars and Teachers Conference, June 15, 2023 - Becoming Equal: American Law and the Rise of the Queer Family
Mid-Atlantic Family Law Scholars Roundtable, December 2, 2022 - Discrimination by Popular Vote
American Society for Legal History, November 10, 2022 - Gender Expansive Children in Domestic Relations Matters: Redefining 'Best Interests,' May 11, 2022.
Colorado Bar Association Family Law Section, May 11, 2022 - Reading Rainbows: Inculcating Tolerance in the Nation's Schools
Harvard Law School Legal History Workshop, March 2, 2022
Media
- The Heartbreaking Oversight in Conversion Therapy Bans Uncloseted Media, September 29, 2024
- Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Legal Recognition Notches, September 10, 2024
- Supreme Court Sets Stage For Crucial Ruling On Trans Rights Law360, June 25, 2024
- "The Gay Pastor, The Conservative Megachurch and the Fight Ripping Apart a Suburb" Huffington Post, December 28, 2023
- NC transgender athlete ban affects private schools and universities. But is it legal? Charlotte News & Observer, June 23, 2023
- They Said Letting Transgender Girls Play Would Drive Athletes Away from HS and College Sports. It Didn't. The 74 Million, October 19, 2022
- The Future of Marriage Equality Getting Common, VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel, July 20, 2022
- History Is Repeating Itself On the Gay Rights Movement Baltimore Sun, June 18, 2022
- The History and Importance of the Stonewall Riots 770 CHQR radio, June 6, 2022
- What Were the Stonewall Riots? How the Events of 1969 Shaped LGBT Movement Newsweek, June 1, 2022
- The Real Reason Pride Month Is Celebrated in June Newsweek, June 1, 2022
- Republicans will try to ban or further restrict abortions in North Carolina, legal and political experts say Winston-Salem Journal, May 8, 2022
- Law professor says other rights could be impacted if Roe v. Wade overturned WFMY, May 4, 2022
- Impact in North Carolina if Roe v. Wade is overturned WFMY, May 3, 2022
- Why So Many Conservatives Are Talking about "Grooming" All of a Sudden 539Politics, April 2022
- Why Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill is Just the Tip of the Iceberg The Skimm, March 28, 2022
- Editorial: Abbott and Paxton, don't threaten parents of trans kids and their doctors Houston Chronicle, February 26, 2022
- California Legislates Non-Consensual Condom Removal La Presse, October 8, 2021
- A Supreme Court Case Poses a Threat to L.G.B.T.Q. Foster Kids New York Times, June 5, 2021
- These Photos of Dogs Doing Work are Absolutely Adorable GOOD MORNING AMERICA, March 29, 2021
- During the 1970s, Social Workers Began Placing LGBTQ Youth with Queer Foster Families, The Takeaway WNYC and Public Radio Int'l, March 9, 2021
- The Untold Story of Queer Foster Families, New Yorker New Yorker, February 28, 2021
- Your questions about jobs and unemployment answered WFMY News, February 17, 2021
- Having problems with your unemployment? Wake Forest Law may be able to help. WFMY TV, June 17, 2020
- Wake Forest Law School Students Providing Help With Unemployment Benefit Questions Winston-Salem Journal, June 7, 2020
- Examining Transgender Civil Rights NPR - KUAF, April 16, 2019
Expertise
- Civil Litigation & Procedure
- Civil Rights/Anti-Discrimination Laws
- Family Law
- Law & Society
- Legal History
- Public Interest Law & Policy
- Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law
- State and Local Government