Staff

Shelbi Day is a Staff Attorney in the Western Regional Office of 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.

Prior to joining Lambda Legal in 2012, Day worked as a Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Florida and the Southern Regional Office of the National Center for Lesbian Rights where she advocated on behalf of LGBT people and people with HIV. Day began her civil rights career at Southern Legal Counsel, Inc., initially as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and later as a staff attorney, working on a diverse range of civil rights issues.

Day has litigated civil rights cases in state and federal court on issues including gay and lesbian rights, reproductive freedom, privacy rights, freedom of speech and expression, equal protection, and police misconduct. Most notably, while at the ACLU of Florida, Day served as co-counsel in the ACLU’s landmark case in which a Florida appellate court rendered Florida’s law prohibiting gay men and lesbians from adopting children unconstitutional. As a result, Florida’s adoption ban is no longer enforceable.

Over the last five years, Day has successfully represented several LGBT and allied students whose rights were being violated by Florida school districts. In Gay Straight Alliance of Yulee High Sch. V Sch. Bd. Of Nassau County, Day helped secure students’ right to form a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at Yulee High School in Northern Florida. And, she successfully addressed schools’ filtering of LGBT websites on school computers, implementation of a gender specific graduation dress code, and application of discriminatory policies and practices to transgender students.  

Day has served on several panels and given lectures and presentations on a variety of LGBT issues. And, in the fall of 2011, she taught a class on sexuality and the law as adjunct faculty at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

From 2002 to 2003, Day served as a law clerk for the Hon. Charles R. Wilson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She graduated with high honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and has a master’s degree in Latin American studies. While in law school and graduate school, Day focused her studies on human rights, gender, and sexual orientation, earning graduate certificates in international law and women’s studies.

Day is a member of the Florida Bar.