Press Release

(June 12, 2015 New York, NY)--Following news that antigay bills have become law in both Michigan and North Carolina, Legal Director and Eden/Rushing Chair of Lambda Legal Jon Davidson issued the following statement.

(Hagåtña, Guam, June 5, 2015) — Today, District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood granted summary judgment for plaintiffs and banned enforcement of all laws in the U.S. Territory denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry.

Academy Award Winner and Long-time LGBT Rights Supporter Pledges Her Support with $140K Remaining in Nonprofit’s Million Dollar Match

(New York, NY – May 22, 2015) According to news reports, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has rejected Texas’s assurance that it will work to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act standards. The rejection is based on the absence of a form that Texas was supposed to submit promising that the state would dedicate at least five percent of federal grant money toward implementation of the PREA standards.  Instead Governor Abbott wrote that Texas will work to fully implement PREA “wherever feasible” – a guarantee DOJ deemed insufficient.

(Los Angeles, May 21, 2015) – Robert M. Gates, president of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, today announced that the national organization would no longer enforce its ban on local Boy Scout councils allowing gay men to join the organization and serve in leadership positions, noting that the organization could no longer “ignore the social, political, and judicial changes taking place in our country.”

(New York, NY, May 21, 2015) –Texas Governor Gregory Abbott has assured U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch that Texas will take steps to comply with the standards set by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

ATLANTA– Today, United States District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr., found the City of Atlanta in contempt of court and imposed sanctions for the city’s failure to comply with a prior Settlement and Consent Order on behalf of patrons at the Atlanta Eagle Bar whose constitutional rights were violated when the Atlanta Police Department raided the Atlanta Eagle without a warrant and searched and detained dozens of patrons who were not suspected of committing any crime.

(Madison, WI, May 13, 2015) – Today Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit on behalf Chelsea and Jessamy Torres, a married lesbian couple, seeking a birth certificate listing both mothers as parents of their son, born in March 2015.

(Washington, May 12, 2015) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced proposed guidelines for blood donations that change the current lifetime ban for men who have sex with men (MSM) to a one year ban.

“The continued push for such blatantly discriminatory legislation illustrates that the Texas legislature is determined to demean LGBT people and defy the law set by the highest court in the country. Texas does not and should not get to pick and choose which parts of the U.S. Constitution it will follow.”