4/15/2010

"President Obama on Thursday ordered his health secretary to issue new rules aimed at granting hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners.

"...Gay rights advocates said the rules change was inspired by one of those cases involving a same-sex couple, Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond, who were profiled in The New York Times last year. After Ms. Pond was stricken with a fatal brain aneurysm, Ms. Langbehn was denied visiting rights in 2007 by a Florida hospital.

"Even the court recognized that what happened to Janice and her family was wrong but had no legal recourse to address it."

4/12/2009

"Some court observers credit U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens with having forged a majority of the court to overturn laws banning private sexual relations between persons of the same sex -- the most beneficial gay-related decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court.

"...The Human Rights Campaign called Stevens 'fair-minded' and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund hailed him as a 'true visionary' to whom the LGBT community 'owes much.'

"Jackson Memorial Hospital should have been able to provide immediate resources to Janice Langbehn when she wasn't allowed to be with her partner Lisa hour after hour as she lay dying in the hospital. We don't want the Langbehn-Pond nightmare to happen to another family."

(New York, January 28, 2010) - Today, Lambda Legal sent an open letter to Atlanta Falcons fullback Ovie Mughelli and his attorney challenging his claims that reports posted on blogs about his alleged relationship with another man were defamatory.

(New York, February 4, 2010) - Today, Lambda Legal released the first nationwide survey that examines health care discrimination experienced by LGBT people and people living with HIV.

(New York, February 17, 2010) - Today, Lambda Legal argued before the New York State Court of Appeals on behalf of a non-biological mother after an intermediate appeals court denied her right to seek custody and visitation with, and provide financial support to the child she has parented with her former same-sex partner.

(New Orleans, February 18, 2010) – The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Louisiana Registrar of Vital Statistics must respect a New York adoption by a same-sex couple of a Louisiana-born baby boy.

(New York, February 24, 2010) - Today Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler issued an opinion saying that recognition of out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples is consistent with Maryland law. Lambda Legal applauds the opinion that follows similar analysis in other states like New York.

Statement from Susan Sommer, Director of Constitutional Litigation at Lambda Legal:

"Civil unions are a failed legislative experiment in providing equality in New Jersey—marriage equality is the only solution."