Press Release

Baltimore County announced that, beginning January, it will extend spousal benefits to all county employees who are married to a same-sex spouse. This comes on the heels of an arbitrator’s ruling in favor of Lambda Legal clients Margaret Selby and Juanika Ballard, Baltimore County police officers who had been denied benefits for their same-sex spouses.

(New York, December 12, 2011) - Lambda Legal today released "State of the Law 2011," its annual wrap-up of progress in LGBT rights and tip sheet of what is likely to come in 2012.

The report: State of the Law 2011, is available at : www.lambdalegal.org/publications/state-of-the-law-2011

(San Francisco, December 8, 2011) -- The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today heard oral arguments in the effort by the proponents of Proposition 8 to vacate the historic August 2010 ruling by now-retired U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker finding the discriminatory 2008 proposition unconstitutional. Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Peter Renn issued the following statement at the conclusion of today’s hearing:

(Atlanta, GA, December 6, 2011) — Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as Legislative Editor after she told her supervisor that she planned to transition from male to female.

Lambda Legal HIV Project Director Scott Schoettes released a statement to commemorate World AIDS Day.

Today Lambda Legal urged the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court ruling that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as Legislative Editor after she told her supervisor that she planned to transition from male to female.

(Los Angeles, CA, November 29, 2011) – Today, Lambda Legal and a group of organizations that advocate for the rights of people living with HIV, including HIV-affected immigrants, filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Lopez Berera v. Holder, urging the Court to grant asylum to a transgender Mexican woman living with HIV/AIDS.

Lambda Legal and 30 public interest organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama v. Bentley, the constitutional challenge to Alabama's anti-immigrant law, HB 56, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

(Baltimore, MD November 22, 2011) - Baltimore County must grant equal employment benefits to same-sex couples, Lambda Legal announced today, the result of a binding arbitration decision secured after the organization and police union filed grievances on behalf of Baltimore County police officers Margaret Selby and Juanika Ballard, who had been turned down for benefits for their same-sex spouses.

(New York, November 18, 2011)—Today, in recognition of Transgender Day of Remembrance, Lambda Legal issued the following statement by Dru Levasseur, Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Attorney:

“Today, on the 13^th International Transgender Day of Remembrance, we remember those we have lost and continue to lose to anti-transgender hatred and violence, and recommit ourselves to fighting for full equality for all transgender and gender non-conforming people.