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Two cases challenging discriminatory policies that limited survivor’s benefits to married couples and refused benefits to LGBTQ+ couples married less than nine months. 

Colín v. Orange Unified School District was a groundbreaking case arguing for the right of students to form a gay-straight alliance and to become a recognized student club. 

Join Counsel Omar Gonzalez-Pagan as he discusses Smith v. Avanti, a federal discrimination lawsuit Lambda Legal filed against a property owner in Colorado who violated the federal Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent a housing unit to a same-sex couple, one of whom is transgender, and their children because she worried their “uniqueness” would jeopardize her standing in the community.

In some of the most historic wins for everyone living with HIV in America of the past several decades, Lambda Legal took on the Pentagon, challenging its unjust policies preventing enlistment, deployment, or commissioning as an officer if a person is living with HIV.

Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit in Louisiana on behalf of Liam Pierce, a lifelong public servant, after the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s office rescinded a job offer as a Sheriff's Deputy because he is living with HIV.

In a groundbreaking 8-3 decision, the full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation violates federal civil rights law. This came after Lambda Legal urged the Court to reverse a lower court ruling and allow Kimberly Hively to present her case alleging that Ivy Tech Community College, where she worked as an instructor for 14 years, denied her fulltime employment and promotions and eventually terminated her employment because she is a lesbian. 

Argued from 2001-2009, Benitez v. North Coast Women's Care Medical Group was a case led by Senior Counsel, and now Acting Chief Legal Officer, Jenny Pizer in California. The case argued that health care providers' personal religious beliefs do not excuse discrimination against LGBTQ+ patients in pursuit of medical care.

In late 2004, Lambda Legal filed the Varnum v. Brien case arguing the state of Iowa should legalize same-sex marriage. Deputy Legal Director for Litigation Camilla Taylor walks us through this landmark case and the creative ways in which the team argued the State's limitations violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution.

Transcript for Making the Case, Episode #1.

This report offers an overview of the wide-ranging impacts of the Trump Administration’s federal criminal justice initiatives on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people and communities, with a particular focus on impacts on LGBTQ people of color and immigrants.  Our hope is that this information will serve as a resource to support the work of advocates working at the state and local levels to resist, avoid, limit, or lessen the impacts of federal criminal justice initiatives that harm LGBTQ communities, and to inform broader federal criminal justice reform and police accountability efforts.

Estados o jurisdicciones con el derecho al matrimonio civil

• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Carolina del Norte
• Carolina del Sur
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Distrito de Columbia
• Florida
• Hawái
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Minesota
• Nevada
• Nueva Jersey
• Nueva York
• Nuevo Hampshire
• Nuevo México
• Oklahoma
• Oregón
• Pensilvania
• Rhode Island
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Virginia Occidental
• Washington
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Estados que ofrecen los beneficios y las responsabilidades del matrimonio civil, pero bajo una etiqueta de inferioridad como uniones civiles o parejas domésticas

• California - Ley de Parejas Domésticas amplia
• Colorado - Ley de Uniones Civiles
• Delaware - Ley de Uniones Civiles 
• Hawai - Ley de Uniones Civiles 
• Illinois - Ley de Uniones Civiles
• Nevada - Ley de Parejas Domésticas amplia
• Nueva Jersey - Ley de Uniones Civiles
• Oregón - Ley de Parejas Domésticas amplia
• Washington - Ley de Parejas Domésticas amplia

Estados que ofrecen algunas o muchas protecciones a través de leyes estatales no-matrimoniales como parejas domésticas, beneficiarios recíprocos u otras leyes

• Colorado - Ley de Acuerdos de Beneficiarios Designados
• Hawai - Ley de Beneficiarios Recíprocos
• Maine - Ley de Parejas Domésticas limitada
• Maryland - Ley de Parejas Domésticas limitada
• Wisconsin - Ley de Parejas Domésticas limitada

Estados que ofrecen algunos beneficios de parejas domésticas a empleados estatales (sin incluir los estados mencionados anteriormente que proveen protecciones más amplias)

• Alaska
• Arizona (eliminado por la legislatura estatal en el 2010, pero continuado por orden del tribunal en el caso Collins contra Brewer de Lambda Legal)
• Montana
• Nuevo México (se incluye porque la opinion de la fiscal general aun no ha sido confirmada por los tribunales)

Estados con enmiendas constitucionales que capacitan su asamblea legislativa a limitar el acceso al matrimonio civil

• Hawai

Estados con enmiendas constitucionales que limitan el acceso al matrimonio civil