Press Release

Washington, DC – Today, Lambda Legal announced the hiring of Sasha Buchert, who will join the organization’s Washington, DC office as a Staff Attorney. Prior to joining Lambda, Buchert was a staff attorney and policy counsel at the Transgender Law Center.

(New York, June 15, 2017) — Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo made judicial history by nominating Associate Justice Paul Feinman to the New York Court of Appeals. He is the first openly LGBT person to serve on the state’s high court.

(June 12, 2017) Washington, DC – Today, Lambda Legal and 15 other national LGBT groups urged opposition to the confirmations of John K. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Damien Schiff to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, citing public statements and writings from both nominees and their repeated demonstration of “contempt for LGBT Americans, people living with HIV, women, and other vulnerable populations.”

(Austin, TX – June 6, 2017) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today announced he would be calling the Texas legislature into special session July 18 to complete unfinished business on the state budget. Inexplicably, among 18 other measures, Gov. Abbott also announced he would be including on the agenda for the special session reconsideration of misguided legislation driven by baseless fearmongering about transgender schoolchildren simply using the bathroom that matches who they are. Anti-LGBT legislation along these lines has been a key focus of Texas Lt. Gov.

(Washington, DC, June 6, 2017) – Today, Valerie Huber, a leader in the movement against science-based and honest sex education in schools was appointed as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Health for the US Department of Health and Human Services. 

(Jackson, June 1, 2017) — Today, Lambda Legal and local counsel Dianne Ellis filed an appeal in the Mississippi Supreme Court on behalf of Christina Strickland, a non-biological lesbian mother denied legal parentage to children she and her now ex-wife planned for and raised together.

(May 30, 2017, Philadelphia, PA) – On Friday, Lambda Legal submitted comments to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission regarding proposed guidance concerning protections for LGBTQ people under Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and Pennsylvania Fair Educational Opportunities Act, and urged the Commission to adopt rules and regulations barring sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.

(New York, May 25, 2017) —The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today granted en banc review in Zarda v. Altitude Express, the case of a New York skydiving instructor who was fired from his job because he was gay.

(Austin, TX – May 22, 2017) – The Texas Senate today passed HB 3859, the discriminatory bill that would allow many child placement agencies in the state foster care system – including agencies receiving state and federal funding – to prioritize their religious beliefs above the needs of children in care.

(Austin, TX – May 21, 2017) – The Texas legislature today is considering several bills and potential amendments that target LGBT Texans – and specifically transgender schoolchildren, LGBT kids in the child welfare system and potential LGBT foster and adoptive parents – for discrimination.