Press Release

(August 18, 2020) — Today the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released The High Stakes in the Fulton Case: Undermining the Vital Role of Child Welfare Laws & Regulations in Protecting America’s Children. This report highlights what is at stake in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this fall related to taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies.

(New York, NY, August 17, 2020) – Today, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an injunction in Walker v. Azar, one of the various challenges to the Trump administration’s health care discrimination rule, which is scheduled to go into effect Tuesday, August 18, 2020. 

Richmond, VA – On Friday, the U.S. State Department appealed the June 17th decision of a Maryland federal district court that recognized the birthright citizenship of Kessem Kiviti, the child of married U.S. citizens, Roee and Adiel Kiviti.

(New York, August 17, 2020) – Today, Lambda Legal announced it has named Sherise Bright as the organization's next Chief Communications Officer. 

"We are thrilled to have Sherise join our team as our next Chief Communications Officer. Having worked as an advocate in the LGBTQ movement, an executive in corporations, and a publicist in Hollywood—Sherise has all the experience to help chart Lambda Legal's work in the 'court of public opinion,' which is just as vital as our work in the court of law," said Kevin Jennings, Lambda Legal CEO.

Text.(ATLANTA – August 7, 2020) Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that required a suburban Jacksonville, Florida, school district to treat transgender student Drew Adams equally by allowing equal access to the restroom that matches his gender. Drew Adams’ case was the country’s first trial involving a transgender student’s equal access to restrooms.

(Boise, ID, August 7, 2020) – The federal district court in Idaho today slapped down an effort by the Idaho legislature and Idaho Gov. Brad Little to resuscitate a ban preventing transgender people born in Idaho from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates to match their gender identity. In so doing, the judge held that Idaho state officials’ enforcement of House Bill 509 is currently in violation of the court’s permanent injunction issued in 2018 that declared any such ban unconstitutional and blocked its enforcement.

WASHINGTON —Today, several leading national advocacy organizations dedicated to achieving LGBTQ equality and ending sex discrimination sent a letter to the Department of Justice in regards to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the consolidated cases Bostock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express v. Zarda and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC and urge the full implementation of this decision, including by instructing its departments and other federal agencies to withdraw any guidance or instruction that is inconsistent with the Court’s holding that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and transgender status is unlawful sex discrimination.

A federal judge in Atlanta heard oral arguments today in a case brought by Immigration Equality, Lambda Legal, and pro bono counsel Morgan Lewis against the U.S. State Department for refusing to recognize the citizenship from birth of Simone Mize-Gregg, the two-year-old daughter of U.S. citizens, Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg.

Today Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sander Saba, a nonbinary transgender New York resident who is seeking an accurate New York driver’s license that reflects their nonbinary gender identity.

(Washington, DC, July 24, 2020) – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today unveiled a proposed new rule that would empower federally funded emergency single-sex homeless shelters to turn away people seeking emergency housing based on the subjective determination of shelter staff about whether the person before them appears sufficiently masculine or feminine to be housed in that facility.