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 | | Jill M. Metz | | | Inducted 2006 | | | Photo: Karen Buckley | | Jill M. Metz, 54, lawyer and activist, for nearly three decades of work in developing domestic relations law for same-sex couples, producing LGBT arts events, lobbying for human rights, and serving the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, of which she is now board president.
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| Since the 1970s, Jill Metz has served
Chicago’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Stransgender (LGBT) community through
her law practice, civic activities, and personal
commitment. | |
| Metz formed her own practice in 1978 while
working part-time for the Uptown People’s Law
Center. For 28 years, Jill M. Metz & Associates
has been committed to LGBT issues.
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| Through work with lesbian divorce and custody cases, Metz helped to develop
precedent that is the law today: Custody of one’s child may not be denied because
of a parent’s sexual orientation. She appealed and won Illinois’ first case
establishing lesbian or gay parents’ rights to unrestricted visitation with their
children, even while living with a same-sex partner. In response to marriage
inequality, she has adapted estate-planning documents, including partnership
agreements, to ensure legal security for same-sex families. Co-parent adoptions
are a routine part of her practice. | |
| She began her volunteerism at Gay Horizons’ free legal clinic in 1978. Once a
week, she staffed its drop-in legal center and call-in telephone lines. After serving
on the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce board for eight years, Metz became
board president and organized a Clark Street streetscape project. She helped to
found the Andersonville Development Corporation and served as its board
president for two years. The Chicago City Council appointed her a member of
Special Service Area No. 26, the Broadway Commercial District Commission,
and she serves as its treasurer. | |
| Metz was a founder of Tortoiseshell Productions, which produced lesbian music
concerts in Chicago from 1981 to 1983, and of Footsteps Theater Company,
which in the 1980s produced Jane Chambers’ Last Summer at Bluefish Cove in a
sold-out 12-week run. | |
| Since 1996, Metz has been involved with the American Civil Liberties Union of
Illinois. She has served on its board since 1998, chaired its development
committee, and is currently the board president. She has served as an ACLU
cooperating attorney for LGBT litigation and co-chaired the ACLU fund-raising
concert event “Girls on Top” from 1996 to 2001. In addition, she has volunteered
countless hours and financial support to LGBT organizations. | |
| Other activities have included work in helping to add sexual-orientation and
gender-identity protections to the Illinois Human Rights Act, membership on the
Chicago Bar Association’s committee on LGBT issues, and volunteerism in the
Fair Illinois coalition that worked to remove a discriminatory marriage
referendum from the November 2006 ballot. | |
| This biography is as of the induction date. It has not been updated. |
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