Criminal Justice

2015 was a historic year in the fight for equality for LGBT people and those living with HIV, and Lambda Legal led the fight in courts and communities across the country. Here are some of the highlights of Lambda Legal’s work this year:

Lambda Legal has filed an amended complaint in a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of Thomas Hamm against the City of New York and New York City Department of Correction (DOC) officers and supervisors after a brutal attack on Mr. Hamm while he visited his partner, P.F., at a men’s facility on Rikers Island.

Today, Lambda Legal launched the newest section of its Know Your Rights information hub.

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.

Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) thirteen years ago in an intense, if short-lived, outbreak of bipartisan support for efforts to end sexual violence in our nation’s prisons, jails, community confinement centers and immigration detention centers. Thirteen years after the passage of PREA, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people continue to endure rape at alarming rates while in the custody of the state. 

On Thursday, June 11th, Lambda Legal learned that the Department of Justice had accepted a new letter from Texas Governor Gregory Abbott certifying that Texas would take a more serious approach to implementing the standards of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.