Youth

(LOS ANGELES, January 27, 2000) — Opening a new front in the struggle to stop widespread mistreatment of lesbian and gay students in public schools, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Thursday that it is suing school administrators in Reno, Nevada, for allowing years of merciless abuse to drive a gay student from completing high school.

(NEW YORK, January 14, 2000) -- The United States Supreme Court Friday agreed to hear the Boy Scouts of America's appeal of a New Jersey ruling that struck down the group's ban on gay members and leaders, a move Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said could shed more light on the organization's discriminatory policy nationwide.

(NEW YORK, January 7, 2000) — Building on its pioneering work to protect lesbian and gay students in public schools, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund announced Friday that veteran child welfare advocate Colleen Sullivan will lead its nationwide effort on behalf of young people in foster care. Lambda’s new initiative addresses the needs of youth in a system notorious for abuse and neglect.

Orange, CA, December 8, 1999) -- After months of delaying students’ request to allow a Gay-Straight Alliance Club to meet at El Modena High School, the Orange Unified School Board voted 7-0 late Tuesday to deny the students their constitutional and legal rights.

The students formed the club as a way to promote understanding and respect. The school board's action has left the students with no choice but to pursue the lawsuit they filed in federal court on November 24, said Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and People For the American Way Foundation.

(NEW YORK, December 2, 1999) – A federal judge has dismissed a student lawsuit against the Salt Lake City school board because school officials have produced a definitive policy guaranteeing the right to express pro-gay opinions, attorneys for the students said Thursday.

Lead counsel Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, representing the students, were pleased by the judgment by United States Senior District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins.

(NEW YORK, October 25, 1999) -- At a Washington, D.C., forum about the recent defeat of the Boy Scouts of America's anti-gay policy, Evan Wolfson, senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, will explain why New Jersey's highest court correctly ruled that there is no first amendment problem with requiring the BSA to comply with anti-discrimination law.

(NEW YORK, August 5, 1999) -- A unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court has unequivocally rejected the Boy Scout's anti-gay policies, a phenomenal victory hailed by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund both for its client, the exemplary Eagle Scout James Dale, and for all who believe in Scouting values.

(NEW YORK, August 3, 1999) -- Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, with its client, former Eagle Scout James Dale, will hold a news conference Wednesday at its New York headquarters to discuss a major development expected in the case challenging the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts of America. A phone-in tele-conference will follow.

(NEW YORK, June 21, 1999) -- While marking the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund also awaits what could be another history-making event -- an upcoming ruling in its case challenging the anti-gay policy of the Boy Scouts of America on behalf of James Dale, the exemplary Eagle Scout thrown out of scouting solely because he is gay.

The New Jersey Supreme Court could issue its decision in Dale v. Boy Scouts of America at any time.

(Holmdel, NJ, September 7, 2005) — At a press conference today, Lambda Legal announced a lawsuit filed with the Superior Court of New Jersey in Monmouth County on behalf of a lesbian student who was verbally and physically attacked for two and a half years in Holmdel High School. While the abuse was brought to the school administration’s attention time and again, no effective measures were taken by the school to end it.