Criminal Justice

(New York, February 3, 2004) - Lambda Legal launched a national campaign today to fight police harassment and other harms men face when cruising for sex. Lambda Legal’s latest publication, Little Black Book, tells men who have sex with men about their legal rights if they are harassed or arrested while cruising for sex in public.

(New York, Wednesday, March 3, 2004) - The Attorney General of New York State said today that same-sex couples who validly married elsewhere are legally married throughout the state, and Lambda Legal vowed to take legal action if any local governments refuse to comply with the law.

(Virginia Beach, Virginia, July 9, 2004) -With court papers that will be filed Monday in the Virginia Court of Appeals, Lambda Legal will appeal the conviction of a man who was charged with solicitation of sodomy despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last summer that clearly struck down all remaining sodomy laws in the nation.

(NEW YORK, February 11, 2000) — The Arkansas Circuit Court has ruled that the legal challenge to the state’s 1977 law forbidding certain sex acts between consenting adults of the same sex can go forward, paving the way for seven lesbian and gay Arkansans to finally have their day in court, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said.

This was the third failed attempt by the Arkansas Attorney General and the Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney to have the case dismissed.

(LOS ANGELES, January 20, 2000) — Concerned that the Los Angeles Police Department continues to target gay men with discriminatory law enforcement tactics, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund sued the agency Thursday for the release of lewd conduct arrest records it is vigorously resisting from making public.

(NEW YORK, January 10, 2001) — Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund on Wednesday called on Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating to stay the execution of Wanda Jean Allen, an African-American lesbian and one of several gay inmates on death row despite improprieties during their trials, including anti-gay bias.

(Warren County, Ohio, May 18, 2005) — Arguing that Ohio’s new marriage amendment is limited to barring same-sex couples from marriage, Lambda Legal will seek leave to file friend-of-the-court papers in two domestic violence cases currently on appeal in state court.

(ATLANTA, October 27, 1999) -- The Stonewall Bar Association -- the only organization for lesbian and gay legal professionals in Atlanta -- will honor an attorney for his role in helping overturn Georgia's infamous sodomy law, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Wednesday.

(NEW YORK, October 27, 1999) -- Within a three-day period in early November, courts in Texas and Arkansas will grapple with intrusive sodomy laws, placing the South in the middle of an increasingly successful lesbian and gay civil rights campaign, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Wednesday.

• On Monday, Nov. 1, Pulaski County Circuit Court in Little Rock, Arkansas, will hear Picado v. Pryor, a case filed by Lambda on behalf of seven lesbian and gay Arkansans.
  

(NEW YORK, June 24, 1999) -- In an important step towards overturning one of the remaining state laws banning most sexual intimacy for lesbian and gay couples, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that a lawsuit against the state sodomy law can proceed, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said.

Lambda is bringing the case on behalf of seven lesbian and gay Arkansans, arguing that the law violates the right to privacy and unfairly criminalizes oral and anal sex for lesbians and gay men.