Fellowship Established to Honor a Hero

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.