Cole Thaler
National Transgender Rights Attorney
CONTACT: Southern Regional Office, 404-897-1880
Cole Thaler, based in the Southern Regional Office, is the Transgender Rights Attorney for Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV.
Thaler works solely on transgender rights litigation, advocacy and community education. He is currently litigating an employment discrimination lawsuit in federal court for a Houston, Texas woman whose employer rescinded a job offer after learning that she is transgender. He is counsel on a pending Eighth Amendment challenge to a Wisconsin law banning certain forms of health care for transgender prisoners. He represents an 18-year-old student in Gary, Indiana who was barred from attending his senior prom while expressing his gender identity by wearing a dress. He has also represented a transgender woman regarding her treatment in New York juvenile justice facilities.
Thaler's non-litigation efforts have included advocacy to expand and improve health insurance coverage and Medicaid coverage of transgender health care; he has handled several successful coverage appeals. He has assisted transgender people seeking to amend their identity documents to reflect the proper name and sex, and has advocated with prisons and jails for fair treatment of transgender inmates. He presents nationally at conferences and to schools and community groups regarding transgender legal issues, including the effects of federal privacy laws on transgender people.
Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Thaler was an associate at a small firm in Western Massachusetts, where his civil practice included family law matters, consumer protection claims and employment disputes. Prior to that, Thaler served as a law clerk to 11 Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court. In 2002, Thaler co-founded the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition and led a successful lobbying effort to pass a civil rights ordinance in Boston prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. Thaler is a member of the Steering Committee of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Thaler received his bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Williams College and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.
