Ryan Kendall

Background

About Ryan Kendall

I fight for people. I am a tenacious, zealous, effective, award-winning advocate and civil rights lawyer. As an advocate, I pioneered laws banning conversion therapy for minors by working hard to help shape the national dialogue now taking place about conversion therapy and by testifying in state legislatures across the country in support of banning this vile practice. The CA and NJ laws are noteworthy as the first such pieces of legislation of their kind in the history of the world. I’ve defended conversion therapy bans in amicus curiae briefs in various federal appellate courts. Additionally, I have supported arguments sexual orientation and gender identity should be suspect classes for equal protection analysis by participating in amicus curiae briefs at the Supreme Court. I helped secure marriage equality in California by testifying in the federal challenge to California’s Proposition 8. Rory O’Malley from The Book of Mormon and Chris Colfer from Glee portrayed me in "8," the play about the case by Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black. Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the Prop. 8 trial, singled out my testimony as the most emotionally powerful of the case. I’ve also appeared on various television shows, including Anderson Cooper 360 and The Dr. Drew Show, and I've published op-eds and scholarly articles in The Advocate, the NYU Review of Law and Social Change, and elsewhere. As a civil rights lawyer, I’ve fought to vindicate the constitutional rights of the incarcerated, fought to defend people against unjust and illegal evictions, worked to protect the constitutional rights of unhoused persons, and intervened in a federal lawsuit to help defend the City of Los Angeles' COVID-19 protections from a takings challenge by wealthy real estate developers. Among other matters, I currently work on litigation holding Huntington Beach accountable for its failure to follow state law, including its failure to plan for enough housing for its low-income residents. I helped obtain mandatory intervention in the California Attorney General’s lawsuit to enforce state housing laws against Huntington Beach. I am the recipient of several honors, including the Courage Award from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Alumni Key Award and the Arthur Ross Prize from Columbia University, election to Phi Beta Kappa, and a Point Foundation scholarship. In 2014, I was selected as one of only six Great Graduates of 2014 (out of graduates) of Columbia University.