“To trans youth in South Dakota, Mississippi and all across the country, trust that there is an entire community of people who celebrate you, stand with you, and believe that you deserve to feel safe and respected.”
Last night, Charles Rhines, a South Dakota gay man, was put to death by lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final motion that would have allowed Rhines to bring new evidence to the Court showing that antigay bias may have motivated the jury to sentence him to death.
Brian J. Richardson, former Deputy Commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Health, has been named Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Director, based in Chicago.
Six civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, Lambda Legal, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and National LGBT Bar Association, filed an amici brief today urging the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the appeal of Charles Rhines, a gay man on death row in South Dakota.
Today, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard vetoed House Bill 1008, a discriminatory bill that would have prevented transgender students from accessing restrooms and single-sex facilities that correspond to their gender identity.
House Bill 1107, a dangerously far-reaching religious refusal bill that would have allowed individuals, businesses, social service agencies and others to discriminate against same-sex couples, transgender people and single mothers on the basis of personally held religious beliefs was tabled in the South Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.
Lambda Legal client Corinne McCreery won a landmark settlement from her former employer, who had fired Cori after she informed him that she was taking steps to transition from male to female while at work.
Today Lambda Legal announced a landmark settlement for Cori McCreery, a transgender woman in South Dakota who was terminated from her job after she informed her employer that she would be taking steps to transition from male to female at work.