Raúl Arroyo-Mendoza receives Pride Law Fund Fellowship to start project at National Center for Youth Law advocating for LGBTQ youth in the sex trade
OAKLAND – Pride Law Fund is thrilled to announce that Raúl Arroyo-Mendoza has been awarded the annual Tom Steel Fellowship to work at the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL). Raúl was previously a summer law clerk at NCYL and will return to provide legal and advocacy services to LGBTQ youth engaged in the sex trade.
Raúl will provide direct legal services and policy advocacy to LGBTQ youth in the sex trade, who are more likely to be criminalized for engaging in ‘survival sex’ and less likely to receive child welfare services. Despite significantly increased public awareness related to this issue, the focus is on heterosexual cisgender girls and young women even though LGBTQ youth are disproportionately impacted. Access to mental health and transition services, education advocacy, and extended foster care benefits are vital to help LGBTQ youth get out of the sex trade.
“I am honored and humbled to be awarded the Pride Law Fund Tom Steel Fellowship to serve and advocate for LGBTQ youth engaged in the sex trade. I feared rejection as a closeted bisexual adolescent, so it is personally important for me to advocate for the rights of these youth, many of whom were kicked out of their homes after they had the courage to come out,” said Raúl.
Raúl received his J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and his B.A. in International Relations and Philosophy from Tufts University. Before law school, Raúl worked at Advancement Project, a racial justice organization in Washington, D.C. that partnered up with community organizers around the country, including the GSA Network, to end the pushout of LGBTQ youth of color from their schools. As a law student, he participated in the California Asylum Representation Clinic, where he helped a gay, undocumented immigrant from Mexico obtain asylum in the U.S. Raúl spent his first summer at the East Bay Community Law Center, where he won an expulsion appeal before the Alameda County Board of Education because the Hayward Unified School District had routinely expelled English Language Learner students without due process. During his second summer, Raúl worked at the National Center for Youth Law, where he traveled to ICE detention centers along the border to investigate the U.S. government’s inhumane treatment of undocumented youth migrants and their mothers.
Tamara Zakim, Co-Chair of the Pride Law Fund Board of Directors, said, “LGBTQ children who work in the sex trade and live on the streets are a significantly under-served part of our community who need resources to create pathways towards sustainable, healthy living situations. Pride Law Fund is very proud to fund Raúl Arroyo-Mendoza as he offers dedicated, direct and innovative legal services to these valuable young members of our community. Raúl’s work will continue to shine the bright light of Tom Steel’s pioneering legal legacy.”
Since 1979, Pride Law Fund has awarded fellowships to new lawyers who build innovative civil rights projects on behalf of the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities at non-profit organizations across the country. The Tom Steel Fellowship, launched by Pride Law Fund in 2001 as one of the first year-long LGBT-dedicated fellowships in the nation, is building the next generation of highly skilled legal advocates for the LGBT community, to secure civil rights into the future.
NCYL Staff Attorney Kate Walker states, “We are so pleased to have Raúl join NCYL’s Child Trafficking Team. For too long, LGBTQ youth engaged in the commercial sex trade for survival have gone unnoticed. Raúl will be integral to highlighting this issue and providing much needed advocacy to some of our most vulnerable youth.”
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