Nancy Polikoff

Nancy D. Polikoff (born 1952) is an American law professor, LGBT rights activist, and author. She is a professor emerita at Washington College of Law. Polikoff's work focuses on LGBTQ rights, family law, and gender identity issues. She authored Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law.

Education Polikoff completed a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. She earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975.

Career From 1975 to 1976, Polikoff was an instructor at Catholic University Columbus School of Law. She was an attorney and founding partner at Hunter, Polikoff, Bodley & Bottum, P.C. Washington D.C. Feminist Law Collective from 1976 to 1981. Polikoff was a staff attorney for the Women's Legal Defense Fund from 1982 to 1987. She joined the faculty at Washington College of Law as an assistant professor in 1987.

Her work focuses on LGBTQ issues and same-sex parenting law. She is a contributing blogger to the Bilerico Project and Beyond Straight and Gay Marriage.

Awards Polikoff was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award Best LGBT Non-Fiction in 2009 for her book, Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage. She received the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance Distinguished Service Award in 2009. She is a lesbian and was married to filmmaker Cheryl Swannack until March 15, 2020, when Swannack died due to Parkinson's disease.

Selected works

Books

Journal articles