(Chicago, IL, August 16, 2011) - Today Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of several child welfare organizations including the Evan B. Donaldson Institute, the National Association of Social Workers and its Illinois chapter in a case brought by four Dioceses of Catholic Charities against the state of Illinois. These Dioceses seek to force the state to fund their foster care services even though they refuse to follow state law by licensing couples in civil unions as foster parents, claiming they are exempt from state nondiscrimination requirements on religious grounds.

The National LGBT Bar Association has
named Lambda Legal Staff Attorneys Tara Borelli and Dru Levasseur to its
Class of 2011 Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 Award.

"About a hundred people gathered on 110th Street, "Tito Puente Way," in East Harlem last night to remember the life of Camila Guzman. The vigil, sponsored by the Anti-Violence Project, took place outside of Camila's apartment, where she was found murdered last week...

"The vigil featured speakers who not only tackled what the death of Camila, a transgender immigrant from Chile, meant for the LGBT community and trans women of color in general, but what it meant to them personally.

"Flor Bermudez, a staff attorney for Lamba Legal, shared her thoughts about her friend:"

The nation's leading child welfare organizations have joined family law and constitutional scholars in support of Lambda Legal's petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a same-sex couple seeking an accurate birth certificate for their Louisiana-born son whom they adopted in New York. The state of Louisiana has refused to issue a birth certificate listing both fathers as the boy's parents.

Following Lambda Legal's demand letter to Short Line Bus Company on behalf of Ari Gold, who was harassed by a driver for holding his boyfriend's hand, Short Line Bus Company has confirmed it has appropriately disciplined the driver and pledged to conduct antidiscrimination training for all the company's drivers.

"Wisconsin's attempt to ban hormone therapy for transgender prison inmates is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

"The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Chief U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert Jr.'s decision last year striking down the state's 2005 Sex Change Prevention Act after a nonjury trial.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today upheld
the right of transgender people to receive medical care while they are incarcerated. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and
Lambda Legal had challenged a Wisconsin law that prohibited prison doctors from prescribing hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery to
transgender inmates.

On July 24, the whole world watched as New York celebrated marriage equality. Overnight, the number of people living in a jurisdiction in the United States that allows same-sex couples to marry had doubled. Among the first to tie the knot were three plaintiff couples in Lambda Legal's New York marriage lawsuit, Hernandez v. Robles: Daniel Hernandez and Nevin Cohen, Douglas Robinson and Michael Elsasser, and Jo-Ann Shain and Mary Jo Kennedy. It was a historic day and a momentous occasion for all of us—one that we are committed to recreating across the Hudson River, in New Jersey.

As we celebrate marriage equality in New York, the new law has also caused some people to wonder how this law affects them and their families, especially those same-sex couples who have already been legally married elsewhere. We understand wanting marry again in your home state – the patchwork of marriage law for same-sex couples in the United States can be confusing for those who want to make sure their relationships are fully recognized.

"Lambda Legal charges in the suit that the frightening encounter ensued after the manager accused Liza Friedlander of not paying for the buffet during brunch with friends at the Forest Hills Sizzler last September.

"The suit, filed in Queens Supreme Court, says the manager shoved Friedlander in the chest and kicked her in the legs while calling her a "f...... dyke" and other epithets.

"...The suit is believed to be the first test of an anti-bias law passed last year that allows victims of anti-gay violence to sue their attackers in civil court."