Following the introduction of the Equality Act in July, questions have arisen about just how the bill is designed to protect LGBT people and its potential impact on employers, businesses and religious entities.
Today Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline, together with lead co-sponsors Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), introduced the Equality Act, a bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education, and jury service.
Our voices are hoarse from cheering and our feet are tired from marching, but our hearts are full and we’re ready for what comes next. No time to waste.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this month issued expanded guidelines on the treatment of transgender immigrants currently detained in ICE facilities.
On Thursday, June 11th, Lambda Legal learned that the Department of Justice had accepted a new letter from Texas Governor Gregory Abbott certifying that Texas would take a more serious approach to implementing the standards of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Texas Governor Gregory Abbott has assured U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch that Texas will take steps to comply with the standards set by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).
Q: My friend is a transgender woman in a men’s prison. Last year she was raped, and I’m afraid it’ll happen again. Why can’t she be moved to a women’s prison?
Your friend would probably be much less likely to suffer sexual assault if she was housed with other women in a woman’s facility. But unlike Laverne Cox’s character in Orange is the New Black, transgender incarcerated people in the U.S. are still usually housed according to the sex assigned at birth, instead of by gender identity. This practice makes transgender people more vulnerable to harassment or attack by staff or fellow incarcerated people. A California study found that transgender people were 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than non-transgender people in prison.
With exactly two weeks remaining until the U.S. Justice Department’s May 15 deadline for the governors of all 50 states to confirm that their state is in compliance with the national standards set by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), Lambda Legal urges Texas Governor Greg Abbott to adopt the PREA standards unconditionally and acknowledge that rape and sexual assault can no longer be accepted as part of the sentence served for any crime.
A September 2014 NPR special on transgender families that featured Robina Asti, a 94-year-old transgender woman who worked with Lambda Legal to successfully challenge the Social Security Administration, has won a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.