Press Release

(May 28, 2019) – Today, Lambda Legal, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit challenging the “Denial of Care” Rule issued earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

(New York, May 24, 2019) – Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed new regulations designed to roll back regulations issued during the Obama Administration that clarified that, pursuant to federal law, the sex discrimination protections of the Affordable Care Act forbid discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Lambda Legal today filed a federal lawsuit to compel the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to release information about their communications with outside organizations and decisions pertaining to the health care and well-being of LGBTQ people, including the alleged suspension of the publication and implementation of LGBTQ nondiscrimination rules and regulations.

"The Equality Act codifies the American principle that a person's job performance, rather than sexual orientation or gender identity, should determine their success on the job.”

(Denver, May 9, 2019) — Lambda Legal last night filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit urging the court to uphold a lower court ruling that the State Department cannot rely on its male-or-female-only gender policy to withhold a U.S. passport from Dana Zzyym, a U.S. Navy veteran who is intersex and nonbinary, and does not identify as male or female.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will soon issue a new final rule protecting health care providers who refuse to treat LGBT people and women seeking reproductive health care, solely on the basis of the providers’ religious or moral objections.

Lambda Legal today asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona to provide relief to all surviving same-sex spouses denied equal access to social security survivor’s benefits, including through certification of a class action.

(New York, April 24, 2019) – The Tennessee State Senate is soon to vote on Tennessee SB 1304, a license-to-discriminate bill that allows taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies to reject foster or adoptive parents based upon the agency’s religious beliefs. The Senate’s consideration comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday approved SB 1304 on a 6-2 vote. A companion bill, HB 836, was passed by the Tennessee House of Representatives earlier.

(Nashville, Tennessee –April 23, 2019) — Today Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s policy prohibiting transgender people born in Tennessee from correcting the gender marker on their birth certificates. Tennessee is one of just three remaining states, including Kansas and Ohio where Lambda Legal has similar lawsuits currently pending in federal district court, to have such a discriminatory policy.

(Washington, DC, April 22, 2019) —The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it will review three cases that address whether discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion.