(NEW YORK, February 20, 2002) — Lambda Legal’s board of directors has welcomed five new members from around the country, adding even more philanthropic and business expertise as well as geographic range at a time when the oldest and largest legal group dedicated to gay civil rights continues to grow.

“We are very pleased to have these extremely talented women and men joining our board,” said Lambda Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart. “They are wonderful assets for our work to expand Lambda’s program and presence around the country,” he said.

Seven lesbian and gay couples from across New Jersey, represented by Lambda Legal, to sue in state court Wednesday morning for the right to full marriage, going beyond Vermont's civil unions

The couples are from North, Central, and South Jersey

News conferences with plaintiffs on Wednesday, June 26:

(NEW YORK, February 13, 2002) —Lambda Legal, on behalf of the American Public Health Association, the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, and several hepatitis-C education associations, is asking the United States Supreme Court to reject an employer’s argument that, under the ADA, it can fire a healthy worker with signs of liver disease because it considers chemical exposure on the job dangerous to his future health.

In an historic case aiming to legalize marriage for same-sex couples in New Jersey -- and therefore advance the rights of these couples beyond domestic partnership benefits or Vermont’s Civil Union law -- seven lesbian and gay couples filed a lawsuit against the State of New Jersey today in Hudson County Superior Court in Jersey City. The couples, declaring they were tired of paying first-class taxes while being treated like second-class citizens, demanded the state allow them to marry just like their heterosexual friends, family, and neighbors.

(New York, Tuesday, July 9, 2002) - The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled in Jegley v. Picado, a lawsuit brought by seven lesbian and gay Arkansas residents challenging the state's same-sex-only sodomy law, that the law violates the state constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (Lambda Legal) was successful in urging the Court, on behalf of the plaintiffs, to void the state's ban on intimate relations between consenting adults of the same sex.

(New York and Dallas, Tuesday, July 16, 2002) - Lambda Legal, representing two Houston men, today asked the United States Supreme Court to review the Texas "Homosexual Conduct" Law and declare it unconstitutional. That law bans intimate relations, including oral and anal sex, between consenting adults of the same sex. The Texas law does not apply to heterosexual couples, but instead singles out same-sex couples for this criminal ban. The men represented by Lambda Legal were arrested and convicted for having sex in the privacy of one man's home.

(NEW YORK, Monday, February 11, 2002) — Linking Valentine’s Day and Lincoln’s birthday with the themes of love and equality, Lambda Legal and communities nationwide, including many clergy, are supporting lesbian and gay couples with celebrations of the fifth annual National Freedom to Marry Day.

On Tuesday, February 12, diverse communities from California to Maine will gather for events that call for an end to discrimination against lesbian and gay couples, who are unfairly barred from civil marriage in all 50 states.

(LOS ANGELES, Monday, February 11, 2002) — A gay California man whose partner died in the September 11 terrorist attacks says the plight he now faces vividly shows why his home state must allow lesbian and gay couples to marry.

“Jeff and I got as close to marriage as we could with our domestic partnership,” says Keith Bradkowski, whose partner of 11 years, Jeff Collman, was a flight attendant killed in the attacks. “But it wasn’t protection enough, and now I am legally vulnerable in ways I never imagined.”

WHAT: Press conference to announce filing of lawsuit, Bellmore v. United Methodist Children's Home and Department of Human Resources of Georgia

(NEW YORK, Wednesday January 30, 2002) —Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said a new policy from the American Academy of Pediatrics supporting legal protections for lesbian and gay families is an important landmark.