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Press Release
Professor Noa Ben-Asher delivers 2022 James D. Hopkins Professor of Law Lecture on Gender Identity
Professor Noa Ben-Asher delivered the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law lecture on Wednesday, October 26, on "Gender Identity, the New Legal Sex (YouTube)." Dean Horace Anderson appointed Professor Ben-Asher as the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law for the 2021-2023 term. During the holder's term, the James D. Hopkins Professor delivers a lecture that is open to the entire law school community and members of the public.
"What’s gender? What’s sexuality? What does it mean to be gay?" Professor Ben-Asher opened their Hopkins lecture with these questions. During the well-attended lecture, Professor Ben-Asher connected to the audience by sharing personal experiences as related to turning points in both their own understanding and the world’s understanding of the distinction between gender and sexuality. Professor Ben-Asher continued their lecture, discussing how “legal sex has changed.” They continued that “the way in which different areas of law, lawmakers, courts, and policy makers are shifting toward a new definition of legal sex: gender identity.”
During Professor Ben-Asher’s lecture, they first briefly described how the definition of biological sex has changed from the end of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. During this first part, Professor Ben-Asher noted that legal sex was understood, until around mid-twentieth century, as physical sexual difference between males and females. However, by 2022, the overwhelming trend in US law is toward framing legal sex as gender identity—defined as “an individual’s own internal sense of whether they are a man, a woman, or nonbinary.” Relatedly, Professor Ben-Asher went through a three party taxonomy on how legal sex has changed accordingly. Next, the current backlash against transgender people was discussed. Finally, Professor Ben-Asher offered their critique and suggestions regarding the future definitions of legal sex.
In the last part of their lecture, Professor Ben-Asher astutely noted that, today, “liberalism and rights have become entangled in science and medicine” and there is a price tag that this entanglement comes with. “The heavy reliance of gender identity advocates on medical science has been productive for the rights and recognition of gender and minority, but it has come with a cost and my concern is that by over relying on medical science and expertise we do not engage in the debate on sexual morals as it is emerging in front of our eyes.” Professor Ben-Asher observed that, “the debate is in the domain of sexual morality, no matter where you fall on it.”
Professor Ben-Asher concluded their lecture by stating that, “when we talk about gender and sexuality we are in the domain of morality, life, and death, which we must approach not with pride, certainty, and science, but with humility, empathy, and kindness.” After the lecture, audience members had an opportunity to comment and ask questions. Many members of the audience, including faculty members and law students, participated and asked thoughtful and engaging questions. In response to a question on the battleground that has become boards of education over topics such as gender and identity teachings, Professor Ben-Asher responded that “we need to educate” to have positive future outcomes.
Professor Noa Ben-Asher joined the Haub Law faculty in 2009. They teach torts, family law, and sexuality, gender & the law. Prior to joining the faculty at Haub Law, Professor Ben-Asher was in the Associate-in-Law program at Columbia Law School (2007-2009). Prior to their associateship, they were a Williams Fellow at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law (2006), where they taught at the department of LGBT studies. From 2004-2005, they practiced in the litigation department of Proskauer Rose LLP in New York. They are a graduate of New York University School of Law (LLM 2001; JSD 2006), and Bar-Ilan University School of Law (LLB 1999). Professor Ben-Asher was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School for the academic year 2014-2015, and a visiting professor at Columbia Law School for the academic year 2015-2016. Additionally, their scholarship is frequently published in prestigious journals, including Tulane Law Review, Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law, and others. They also have a forthcoming book, Secular-Christian Social Justice, to be published by NYU Press.
The title of James D. Hopkins Professor of Law is awarded to a member of the faculty for a two-year term in recognition of outstanding scholarship and teaching. The designation is among the Law School’s most significant faculty honors. The Hopkins Professor is selected by the Dean in consultation with the former holders of the Hopkins Chair. The prior James D. Hopkins Professor of Law for the 2019-2021 term was Professor Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer.