Today, Lambda Legal and local counsel Dianne Ellis filed an appeal in the Mississippi Supreme Court on behalf of Christina Strickland, a non-biological lesbian mother denied legal parentage to children she and her now ex-wife planned for and raised together.
"Those agencies that won't commit to putting children's needs first, and to nondiscrimination as a core promise to children and families, must not be allowed to operate as agents of the government."
Today Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign and University of Louisville Law Professor Sam Marcosson filed a complaint against Judge W. Mitchell Nance for violating Kentucky’s Code of Judicial Conduct by recusing himself from any adoption proceedings involving lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
The Texas House of Representatives today passed HB 3859, a discriminatory bill that would allow child placement agencies in the state foster care system – including agencies receiving state and federal funding – to prioritize their religious beliefs above the needs of children in its care.
Judge Day directed court staff to use the court record system to investigate whether couples wishing to marry were of the same sex and, if so, to represent that he was unavailable, rather than unwilling, to marry them.
Lambda Legal today announced it has joined a lawsuit against a Picayune, MS, funeral home for refusing to provide any service for Robert Huskey after his death, leaving his 82-year-old husband, Jack Zawadski, desperate to make other arrangements in the hours after his beloved spouse’s passing. The suit seeks damages for breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and the intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
A federal district court judge today ruled that a Boulder County property owner violated both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act when she refused to rent a housing unit to Lambda Legal clients Rachel and Tonya Smith, a same-sex couple, one of whom is transgender, and their children, because she worried their “uniqueness” would jeopardize her standing in the community.
The 2020 census won’t include questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. The harm to LGBTQ people from being erased is not just about numbers (although those are certainly important). Census information helps determine the allocation of federally funded social services that are critically important to so many members of the LGBTQ community.
Today, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled that the state must issue accurate death certificates to all surviving same-sex spouses.