Press Release

(San Diego, February 7, 2003) - A state appeals court will hear arguments Monday in the case of a San Diego woman whose health care providers refused medical treatment to her because she is a lesbian. Lambda Legal is asking the court to overturn a ruling from last year that said Guadalupe Benitez’s health care providers acted lawfully when, citing doctors’ personal religious beliefs about gay people, they refused to provide infertility treatment to her so she and her life partner could start a family.

(San Diego, March 4, 2003) - In the first ruling of its kind in the nation, a California appeals court today said health care providers cannot discriminate against patients based on their sexual orientation. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which fought on behalf of a lesbian who was denied insemination services by her Southern California health care providers, said the decision will impact lesbians and gay men throughout California and nationwide.

(New York, Thursday, January 23, 2003) - In what Lambda Legal today called “a huge step forward for the federal government,” a lesbian was awarded more than $500,000 from the federal fund that was designed to compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Lambda Legal represented Peggy Neff, whose partner of 18 years died in the attack on the Pentagon, in her year-and-a-half-long struggle to win the same support and treatment as people whose spouses died on Sept. 11.

(ATLANTA, October 9, 2001) — Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund announced Tuesday that it has filed a brief in support of a lesbian mother’s challenge to a Georgia court’s order barring her from visiting her three sons while living with her partner.

(NEW YORK) — Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups, individuals, and friends will join together to remember and honor victims and their families and the many others affected by the tragedy of September 11.

(NEW YORK, September 27, 2001) — Top national and local children’s rights organizations are among a dozen legal and mental health groups urging Nebraska’s highest court to consider a toddler’s best interests and allow one of his lesbian mothers to also be a legal parent, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Thursday.

(CHICAGO, September 27, 2001) — As a federal appeals court judge, Abner Mikva once struck down the military’s anti-gay policy; soon he will be the keynote speaker for the Bon Foster Memorial Civil Rights Address sponsored by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Judge Mikva will address hundreds of Lambda supporters on Friday, October 12 at the Inter-Continental Chicago. Chicago’s Mayor, the Honorable Richard M. Daley, is the event’s honorary co-chair.

(NEW YORK, September 6, 2001) -- Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is urging Pennsylvania's highest court to affirm a ruling that a lesbian mother who raised a child with her former partner for three years from birth may seek visitation with her daughter despite the biological mother's objection.