Press Release

(Raleigh, NC, April 14, 2017) – Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of North Carolina today condemned the decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to dismiss its lawsuit challenging House Bill 2, the discriminatory North Carolina law that banned many transgender people from restrooms and other public facilities matching their gender and prohibited local municipalities from extending nondiscrimination protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

(New York, April 12, 2017) – After news reported the death of Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African-American woman and Muslim to serve on New York’s highest court, Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Susan Sommer, Director of Constitutional Litigation.

(Carson City, NV – April 11, 2017) – Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval today signed Assembly Bill 99, a bill that requires child welfare and juvenile justice agencies in Nevada to treat transgender children in their care in accordance with their gender identity.

(San Juan, PR, April 6, 2017) – Lambda Legal today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of three transgender Puerto Ricans and the LGBT rights organization Puerto Rico Para Tod@s to compel the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to allow transgender individuals to correct the gender marker on their birth certificates.

(Denver, CO, April 5, 2017) – A federal district court judge today ruled that a Boulder County property owner violated both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act when she refused to rent a housing unit to Lambda Legal clients Rachel and Tonya Smith, a same-sex couple, one of whom is transgender, and their children, because she worried their “uniqueness” would jeopardize her standing in the community.

(St. Louis, MO, April 5 2017) — Yesterday, Lambda Legal asked a federal district court to order the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) and Corizon LLC (Corizon), which MDOC contracts to provide healthcare at its facilities, to provide medically necessary, doctor-recommended health care for the treatment of gender dysphoria for Jessica Hicklin, a 38-year-old transgender woman incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Missouri.

(Chicago, IL, April 4, 2017) –In a groundbreaking, 8-3 decision, the full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation violates federal civil rights law.

(Lubbock, TX, April 3, 2017) — Mississippi civil rights attorney Rob McDuff, along with Mississippi Center for Justice and Lambda Legal, today argued before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that it should leave in place a federal district court injunction against House Bill 1523, Mississippi’s discriminatory anti-LGBT legislation.

(New York, NY, April 3, 2017) – Today the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to send Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination for the Supreme Court to the full Senate for a vote.

(Atlanta, March 31, 2017) —Today, Lambda Legal filed a petition seeking a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of Jameka Evans, a security guard who was harassed at work and effectively terminated from her job because she is a lesbian and doesn’t conform to gender norms in her appearance and demeanor.