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Joey Ramelli and Megan Donovan were forced to drop out of high school and complete their education at home after being harassed by their classmates over the course of their sophomore and junior years. The students taunted them with antigay slurs, and even vandalized Ramelli's car and assaulted him.

Lambda Legal filed initial briefs in 2006 and gave oral arguments this past July, urging the California Court of Appeal, the state's mid-level court, to uphold a jury decision that holds Poway High School responsible for failing to protect them.

The jury deemed the harassment endured by Ramelli and Donovan so severe that administrators were held responsible for protecting them under California law and the U.S. Constitution, which require school officials to provide equal education opportunities to all students. The students were awarded $300,000.

In 1998, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested in Lawrence's Houston, Texas, home and jailed overnight after officers responding to a false report found the men having consensual sex. This event triggered a five-year-long court battle that ultimately lead to Lambda Legal's groundbreaking Supreme Court victory, Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down all remaining state sodomy laws in the country and ushered in a new era in the LGBT civil rights movement.

Tyron Garner died in 2006, and although he did not set out to be an activist, his courage and conviction to stand up against an unjust law will have a lasting impact on all those who value their constitutional rights. To honor his bravery and memory Lambda Legal is proud to announce the Tyron Garner Memorial Fellowship for African-American LGBT Civil Rights.

The fellowship expands Lambda Legal's efforts to increase the diversity of attorneys within the LGBT movement, and to serve more communities of color. Lambda Legal is looking for candidates who have first-hand understanding of the issues that affect communities of color and have experience working with LGBT and HIV issues within African-American communities. The first fellowship will be awarded to a law student to work in any of Lambda Legal's five offices during the summer of 2008.

Read the complete fellowship description.

Case History:

• September 1998 Police arrest John Lawrence and Tyron Garner in Lawrence's private apartment and charge them with having consensual sex in violation of Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law.
• December 1998 Motion to quash the charges against Lawrence and Garner as unconstitutional are denied by the Harris County Criminal Court. The men plead "nolo contendere," preserving their right to pursue their constitutional challenge to the law.
• November 1999 Lambda Legal presents arguments to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston challenging the men's conviction.
• June 2000 Court reverses the conviction of the two men and overturns Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law, declaring it unconstitutional.
• March 2001 After rehearing the case, a larger panel of the Texas Court of Appeals overturns the earlier appellate ruling, upholding the men's conviction.
• April 2002 Texas's highest criminal court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, refuses to hear Lambda Legal's appeal.
• July 2002 Lambda Legal asks U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law. The case presents the high court with two independent constitutional claims that Lambda Legal urges it to review: one based on equal protection, the other based on rights of privacy and liberty.
• December 2002 U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the case.
• January 2003 Lambda Legal files its brief urging U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law.
• March 2003 Lambda Legal presents oral arguments before U.S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Texas "Homosexuality Conduct" law.
• June 2003 Victory! In landmark ruling for lesbian and gay Americans' civil rights, U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the "Homosexual Conduct" law.

In his first year at the helm of Proyecto Igualdad, Lambda Legal's education and advocacy program for Spanish speakers and the Latino/Hispanic communities, Francisco Dueñas has been very busy. In addition to providing resources and information to Spanish speakers and engaging the many Latino/Hispanic communities, Dueñas has recently been appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to serve in a voluntary capacity on the L.A. Human Relations Commission.

And Frontiers magazine just named Dueñas one of the top 25 "unsung heroes" of the Los Angeles LGBT community for his success at making outreach to the Latino community a "hot" topic.

From Frontiers:

#7 Francisco Dueñas
Know Your Rights

WHY HIM? After working in an AmeriCorps program for the L.A. Unified School District for LGBT teens, Dueñas became Lambda Legal's national liaison to the Latino community, educating gay Latinos about their rights and helping mainstream Latino groups integrate gay people into their communities.

BIG CHALLENGES: Because his work deals with people who are marginalized in both the gay community and the Latino community, Dueñas finds that "straddling the different communities, getting them to work together [and] build coalitions, and helping them feel that they're both getting something out of it" is the hardest part of his job.

THE FUTURE OF LATINO L.A.: "In terms of population and spirit, the community is huge, critical and important. We're still developing our community, our leadership, and our visibility. I especially feel gay Latinos can play a crucial role in bridging communities, both cross racially and cross-culturally."

LAMBDA LEGAL'S HELPING HAND: The organization serves the Latino community by being a bilingual resource. The help desk is available to let LGBT people know their rights — which is especially important when it comes to issues like immigration and employment as they apply to LGBT people.

Read the whole story on the Frontiers website.

The Foreign Service will no longer automatically reject job candidates based on their HIV status but will instead assess each on a case-by-case basis — as the federal Rehabilitation Act requires.

Lambda Legal has represented Lorenzo Taylor since 2003 in his fight against the State Department for denying him employment because he is HIV-positive. Taylor, who speaks three languages and holds a degree from Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, received a conditional offer of employment after passing the rigorous application process required to be a Foreign Service Officer.

The offer was retracted because he has HIV. Lorenzo Taylor was denied medical clearance even though he has never had any HIV related illness and his medication had completely suppressed the virus in his system.

This case challenged a federal policy of bias and discrimination. It barred the door not just for Taylor, but for all people living with HIV, limiting their opportunities for government service based on outdated notions about the ability of people living with HIV to work.

Lorenzo Taylor
Lambda Legal Client
“I wanted to serve my country as a Foreign Service Officer, but was told, ‘Sorry we don’t need your kind,’" Lorenzo says. "Now people like me who apply to the Foreign Service will not have to go through what I did. They and others with HIV will know that they do not have to surrender to stigma, ignorance, fear, or the efforts of anyone, even the federal government, to impose second-class citizenship on them. They can fight back.”

Case History

• September 2003 Lambda Legal files lawsuit in federal court arguing that the STATE Department illegally prohibits anyone with HIV from being hired as a Foreign Service Officer, regardless of applicant’s qualifications or health status.
• April 2005 Federal district court rules in favor of the state Department, saying that the government should not have to accommodate Taylor by letting him use some of his sick and vacation leave, available to all Foreign Service Officers, to travel to see his doctor.
• June 2005 Lambda Legal files an appeal To ask a higher court to reverse the decision of a trial court with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
• April 2006 Lambda Legal presents oral arguments in the case.
• June 2006 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issues decision stating that Taylor presented "more than enough" evidence for the matter to go to trial.
• February 2008 Less than two weeks before our trial date, the U.S State Department adopts new hiring guidelines and lifts its ban against hiring people with HIV as Foreign Service Officers.
  

After falling in love and making a lifetime commitment, Adola DeWolf and Laura Watts decided to share a home and a mortgage together. Watts sold her house and moved into DeWolf's home outside of Rochester, New York. To make sure both partners were protected in case of death, and to share the responsibility for the mortgage, they contacted DeWolf's mortgage company, Countrywide, to add Watts to the mortgage. After the couple followed the instructions to change the deed, Countrywide accused the couple of breaching their agreement with the lender by changing the deed and threatened to foreclose on the house if the almost $80,000 balance on the mortgage was not paid in 30 days. The company said it did not recognize domestic partners as family.

Lambda Legal has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the couple. "Everyone from kids to creditors knows what it means when two people say they are married," says David S. Buckel, Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal and attorney on the case. "If these two women had been able to marry in New York, this never would have happened."

Key Life Planning Topics

Since same-sex relationships are not respected by the federal government or in many states and local jurisdictions, being strategic about the life planning decisions you make is particularly important to protect yourself and your loved ones. Your life planning goals may vary depending on whether you're single or you have a partner or spouse, children or others who depend on you for support. Read more about the life planning topics and strategies you should discuss with your attorney, financial planner or accountant.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Ohio upheld an appeals court's prior ruling affirming the enforceability of a court-approved child custody agreement in a case involving lesbian mothers Theresa Leach and Denise Fairchild. It is the first high court to address and clearly reject the argument that an antigay constitutional amendment concerning marriage prevents gay or lesbian parents from sharing legal custody of children. By noting that the case did not involve any substantial constitutional question, the Court made clear that Ohio's constitutional amendment poses no obstacle to same-sex couples seeking enforceable court orders protecting their children's relationships to both parents.

Fairchild and Leach filed for joint custody of their son in 2001, after they both parented him since his birth in 1996. When the couple split up, Fairchild tried to keep Leach from seeing their son, arguing that Ohio's 2004 antigay constitutional amendment banning marriage between same-sex couples invalidated their agreement and the 2001 court order they had sought together. In June of 2008, the appeals court ruled that the joint custody order was protected from such a tactic, and treated Fairchild's request as improper under the law.

In July, Fairchild asked the Ohio Supreme Court to hear her case, and Lambda Legal urged the Court to refuse. Now, the state Supreme Court joins two prior trial courts and the appeals court in recognizing that the amendment does not affect the custodial rights of non-biological parents. This order from the high court is the final word on the matter.

For two years, Vandy Beth Glenn worked for the Georgia General Assembly's Office of Legislative Counsel as an editor and proofreader of bill language. She loved her job but privately struggled with years of unrelenting distress as a male. Finally, she consulted health care professionals and was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID), a serious medical condition. Her doctors determined that gender transition was necessary for her health and wellbeing.

In the fall of 2007, Glenn announced her plans to proceed with her transition from male to female to her immediate supervisor, who then told the head of the office where she worked. After Glenn's intended transition was confirmed, she was fired on the spot.

Lambda Legal is suing the Georgia General Assembly officials in federal court on Glenn's behalf. We're arguing that assembly officials violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection guarantee by treating Glenn differently once they learned of her female identity and by disregarding her GID and the need for treatment.

"We should expect more from the leaders of our state than to fire me simply for being who I am," says Glenn.

The case is Glenn v. Brumby, et al.

Gender Identity Disorder Facts

• Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is a serious health condition consisting of a persistent discomfort with one's assigned sex and a strong identification with a different sex, causing significant distress or impairment.
• Some, but not all, transgender people are diagnosed with GID.
• Health experts recognize that treatment of GID is medically necessary. The accepted therapeutic approach involves an individualized gender transition, including living full-time as a member of the gender that corresponds with one's identity.

In response to the nomination of Elena Kagan, U.S. Solicitor General, to the U.S. Supreme Court, Lambda Legal says it is pleased with the Obama Administration's efforts to increase the representation of women on the Court, and reissues its memorandum outlining its principles for selecting federal judges.

The New York City-born Kagan is a former Harvard Law School dean who, earlier in her career, served as law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall. At Harvard, Kagan took a strong position in opposition to the military's policy of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and joined a brief arguing that military recruiters could be barred from campuses.

However, the Obama Administration has taken legal positions on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" with which Lambda Legal strongly disagrees.

"If Solicitor General Kagan is confirmed it would be the first time in history that the nation's highest Court would have three women on the bench," says Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart. "Her legal background and experience are impressive. She has been a trailblazer in her profession and a distinguished legal scholar for many years."

"While we don't expect a nominee to answer questions about how she would rule on specific issues that will come before her, we do expect that she will respond to questions about her judicial philosophy and her understanding of core constitutional principles of equal protection and privacy that are so crucial to the civil rights of people who face discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and/or HIV status."

Lambda Legal has identified principles for federal court nominations in a memo, including adherence to precedents established in cases of importance to the LGBT community and people living with HIV. Among those are decisions which safeguard the rights to liberty and privacy, protect against anti-gay and anti-transgender bias, preserve the right to sue in state courts under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and guard against HIV discrimination.

If confirmed, Kagan will take the seat successively held by two of the Supreme Court's most outspoken defenders of individual rights, Justice John Paul Stevens and, before him, Justice William O. Douglas. "We urge the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to look to those principles as they assess Solicitor General Kagan's qualifications to take the seat," Cathcart says.

In a unanimous vote, the Bellevue City Council in Washington State has amended the city code to allow the extension of family benefits to domestic partners of city employees — straight or gay. Married employees already receive these benefits for their spouses They include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, mental health counseling and family leave. The city will now begin the process of implementing a domestic partner benefits plan.

The vote comes two months after Lambda Legal launched a case on behalf of three longtime city employees: Larry deGroen, Faun Patzer and George Einsetler. All three have served the city for more than 10 years with distinction and are in long term committed relationships with a same-sex partner. All three had previously been denied family benefits that married spouses receive.

Lambda Legal still has more work ahead. We will take a close look at the city’s plan and monitor how the benefits are implemented this summer to ensure that domestic partners are treated equally.

LGBT people face real discrimination in the workplace, yet there is still no federal law that expressly forbids this kind of discrimination. The federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA)* seeks to put an end to this. Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart submitted an open letter to congress urging for the passage of this bill.

Discrimination in the workplace is the number one issue for callers to Lambda Legal's Help Desk, with more than 1,000 people calling us about workplace rights in 2006. In Lambda Legal's 2005 Workplace Fairness Survey, 39 percent of respondents reported experiencing some form of discrimination or harassment in the workplace during the past five years because of their sexual orientation. "ENDA would ensure that in most workplaces a person's qualifications and job performance, rather than sexual orientation or gender identity, will be the factors that determine success on the job," Cathcart writes. "Fairness and equal opportunity in employment are fundamental American principles and they should apply to all people in this country."

Read the full text of his letter.

*ENDA is a proposed federal law that would prohibit private employers from discriminating in employment or employment opportunities on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.