Press Release

(Washington, DC, June 05, 2018) – Today, Sharon McGowan, Chief Strategy Officer and Legal Director at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement after Senator McConnell announced that he would cancel the U.S. Senate’s August recess in order to advance President Trump’s judicial nominees:

Lambda Legal this morning filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Alaska on behalf of Jennifer Fletcher, a state legislative librarian who was forced to pay out-of-pocket for medically necessary surgical treatment because the state health insurance plan prohibits such coverage only for transgender state employees.

(New York, June 4, 2018) – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed the religious right a limited, fact-specific victory, ruling that the Colorado civil rights agency violated the religious rights of a Denver baker who refused to sell a same-sex couple a wedding cake.

(Alexandria, VA. May 30, 2018) – Today, Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed a lawsuit on behalf of a sergeant in the D.C. Army National Guard who was denied the opportunity to serve as an officer and faces possible discharge from the United States armed services because he is living with HIV. The lawsuit challenges the Pentagon’s current policies preventing enlistment, deployment or commissioning as an officer if a person is living with HIV, and likely would affect implementation of the new “Deploy or Get Out” policy unveiled by the Trump administration in February.

Lambda Legal returned to federal district court today to argue once again on behalf of U.S. citizen and Navy veteran Dana Zzyym, an intersex person whose gender identity is neither male nor female to whom the U.S. State Department refuses to issue an accurate passport.

(St. Louis, MO, May 23, 2018) —A federal district court has struck down a Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) policy as cruel and unusual punishment because it denies vital health care to transgender people, including Lambda Legal client Jessica Hicklin, a transgender woman incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point.

Today, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer signed into law Kansas SB 284, 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.

(New York, May 11, 2018) – Today, the Trump Administration released changes to the federal Bureau of Prisons Transgender Offender Manual that undercuts constitutional protections and efforts in federal law – specifically the Prison Rape Enforcement Act (PREA) – to protect all prisoners from sexual assault and violence. Richard Saenz, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney and Criminal Justice and Police Misconduct Strategist, releases the following statement:

Today, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed SB 1140, a license-to-discriminate bill that would allow taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies to reject foster or adoptive parents based upon the agency's religious beliefs.

(Washington, DC, May 09, 2018) – Today, Sharon McGowan, Director of Strategy at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement on Leader McConnell’s legacy of judicial nominations after the Senate voted to invoke cloture on the nomination of Michael Brennan, Donald Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit: