Our voices are hoarse from cheering and our feet are tired from marching, but our hearts are full and we’re ready for what comes next. No time to waste.
Today, Lambda Legal joined over two dozen local, state and national LGBT and HIV prevention groups to call on the New York City Council to pass the Right to Know Act to protect LGBT New Yorkers’ rights in police encounters.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he will issue an executive order to remove 16- and 17-year-olds from state prisons, moving them instead to separate facilities under the supervision of the Department of Corrections and the Office of Children and Family Services. The Governor made this announcement during an end-of-session press conference, where he discussed a tentative legislative agreement on a number of outstanding issues.
“While we await broad reform that is long overdue, we hope the Governor’s order will protect youth who are wholly dependent on the state for their health, emotional well-being and physical safety.”
President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing just finalized its report addressing the epidemic of police violence and discriminatory policing across the country. The White House also released recommendations yesterday by the President's Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group, which identified important first steps toward rolling back aspects of the militarization of policing. Lambda Legal was among seven LGBT and HIV advocacy organizations that formed a working group to develop recommendations to the President’s Task Force about how to effectively address the violence and discrimination that our communities face.
With exactly two weeks remaining until the U.S. Justice Department’s May 15 deadline for the governors of all 50 states to confirm that their state is in compliance with the national standards set by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), Lambda Legal urges Texas Governor Greg Abbott to adopt the PREA standards unconditionally and acknowledge that rape and sexual assault can no longer be accepted as part of the sentence served for any crime.
With exactly two weeks remaining until the U.S. Justice Department’s May 15 deadline for the governors of all 50 states to confirm that their state is in compliance with the national standards set by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), Lambda Legal urges Texas Governor Greg Abbott to adopt the PREA standards unconditionally and acknowledge that rape and sexual assault can no longer be accepted as part of the sentence served for any crime.
Lambda Legal has a long history of taking action to end anti-LGBT hate violence, but we also have a long history of opposing victimization of LGBT people and people living with HIV within or at the hands of the criminal justice system.
Today, the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA) was reintroduced by Congressmembers Ben Cardin and John Conyers with key, new language expanding the ban on racial profiling to include profiling based on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
