Press Release

(Jacksonville, June 28, 2017) —Lambda Legal today filed a federal discrimination lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida against the St. Johns County School Board in St. Augustine, FL, near Jacksonville, on behalf of Drew Adams, a 16-year-old boy, who is being denied access to the boys’ restroom because he is transgender.

(Denver, CO, June 27, 2017) – A federal district court in Denver today granted Lambda Legal’s motion to reopen the case of Dana Zzyym, the intersex citizen and U.S. Navy veteran denied a passport because the U.S. State Department continues to refuse to recognize a gender marker that is neither “M” (male) nor “F” (female).

(Denver, CO, June 26, 2017) – Lambda Legal today asked a federal court to reopen the case of Dana Zzyym, the intersex citizen and U.S. Navy veteran denied a passport because the U.S. State Department continues to refuse to recognize a gender marker that is neither “M” (male) nor “F” (female).

(San Juan, PR, June 26, 2017) – Today, Lambda Legal filed papers urging a federal court to strike down Puerto Rico’s policy denying transgender people accurate birth certificates in its case on behalf of three transgender people born in Puerto Rico and the advocacy group Puerto Rico Para Tod@s.

(New York, June 26, 2017) —Today, Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the full U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to reach the same conclusion as the full Seventh Circuit reached in Lambda Legal’s landmark Hively v. Ivy Tech case: The Civil Rights Act covers sexual orientation discrimination. The amicus brief supports the estate of Donald Zarda, a New York skydiving instructor who was fired from his job because he was gay.

(Washington, D.C., June 26, 2017) – Today, the United States Supreme Court issued a split decision in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, concluding that the state of Missouri must allow churches to apply for a playground resurfacing grant on the same terms as other entities.

(New York, NY, June 26, 2017) – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a summary reversal, overturned a decision of the Arkansas Supreme Court, in Pavan v. Smith, saying loud and clear that states may not treat same-sex married couples differently than other married couples, including when it comes to issuing two-parent birth certificates to children born to same-sex spouses.

(Washington--- June 26, 2017) – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it has granted review in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission – the Colorado case involving a Denver bakery that cited religious beliefs and refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple contrary to Colorado’s civil rights law. Jennifer C. Pizer, Senior Counsel and Director of Law and Policy for at Lambda Legal, who authored a friend-of-the-court brief in the case for Lambda Legal, One Colorado, and One Colorado Education Fund, issued the following statement:

(Jackson, June 22, 2017) — Today, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the injunction against Mississippi House Bill 1523, the discriminatory anti-LGBT legislation challenged in Barber v. Bryant, the federal lawsuit brought by Mississippi civil rights attorney Robert McDuff, the Mississippi Center for Justice and Lambda Legal.  The advocates will continue to fight this discriminatory law.

(New York, NY, June 21, 2017)— States fail to collect basic information on the demographic and professional backgrounds of state judges, according to a new report released today by Lambda Legal and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS).