Jon Davidson, Legal Director at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement regarding today's decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacating an earlier U.S. District Court ruling declaring "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) unconstitutional.

Members of the Positive Justice Project, a national coalition dedicated to ending the targeting of people with HIV for unreasonable criminal prosecution, voiced their support for the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act that Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced today.

(New Orleans, La., September 20, 2011) - Forum for Equality Louisiana has named Lambda Legal as the first recipient of its Justice Acclaim Award in recognition of Lambda Legal’s work on the case of the gay couple seeking a Louisiana birth certificate for their Louisiana-born adopted son.

(New York, September 20, 2011) - Today marks the end of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) - a discriminatory policy that banned gay, lesbian, and bisexual soldiers from serving their country openly. DADT ruined thousands of careers, and the frequency of discharges disproportionately affected women of color.

"Like it or not, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students who attend the Meridian School District can't form an official club -- for now.

"Officials say it's not that they won't allow a gay and lesbian club to meet, it just shouldn't be school sponsored, and students would have to have parental permission to join.

"...Peter Renn, staff attorney for Lamba Legal group out of Los Angeles, told 12KTRV that the district's policies raised some major questions for his group who focus on LGBT legal cases.

(Los Angeles, September 13, 2011) - After receiving a letter from Lambda Legal and the Idaho Safe Schools Coalition, Joint School District No. 2 in Meridian, Idaho has amended a policy regarding student clubs, but the revised policy still harms lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and violates their rights.

Lawyers for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives (BLAG) informed U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White that they "prefer not" to participate in a pilot project to video-tape oral arguments at an October 21, 2011 hearing in Golinski v OPM, a federal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

"Same-sex couples and other domestic partners are gaining more control over what happens to their mates in the hospital, under federal guidelines issued this week.

"Hospitals should not bar domestic partners from visiting their mates unless there's a medical reason, and partners should not be required to produce documents to prove their relationship, the guidelines say.

"Jacqueline 'Jackie' Gill filed suit Wednesday, Sept. 7, against a professor and a dean at Northeast Campus of Tarrant County College in Hurst, claiming that she was denied the opportunity to apply for a permanent, full- time teaching position there because of the English Department chair’s bias against what he perceived her sexual orientation to be.

"Gill is represented in the lawsuit by Lambda Legal South Central Region staff attorney Ken Upton, joined by pro bono counsel Benjamin D. Williams from the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.

"A college in Texas is being sued for reportedly turning away a qualified teaching candidate because college administrators perceived her to be a lesbian.

"Jacqueline Gill, a Ph.D. student and former high school English teacher, was hired as a temporary instructor at Tarrant County College in August 2009. Upon hiring for her temporary position, she was told that temporary instructors typically transition to work full-time at the college upon successful completion of a one-year contract.