Hate Crimes

(NEW YORK, August 7, 2001) — An international coalition Thursday will announce a historic proposal asking a New York federal court to allocate some of a $1.25 billion settlement of the lawsuit against Switzerland’s two largest banks for a fund to recognize and address Nazi persecution of gay people.

Such a fund would be the first of its kind. The lawsuit prompting the court’s settlement plan is the first to force recognition that gay people were systematically persecuted by the Nazis.

(Newark, Tuesday, May 13, 2003) -- In response to police reports that a teenager was murdered in Newark Sunday because she is a lesbian, the following statements were issued today by Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, a national organization fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. Lambda Legal has handled a number of anti-gay hate crime cases, including a recent case in New Jersey, and is currently suing the state of New Jersey for full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

(NEW YORK, Monday, October 2, 2000) — A significant group of 31 civil rights and victims’ advocacy organizations are joining Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in appealing the meager amount awarded for a county sheriff’s failure to protect Brandon Teena from a brutal murder.

(Platteville, Wisconsin, September 28, 2006) — In court papers filed today, Lambda Legal seeks recovery for damages suffered by Brett Timmerman after he was attacked because he is gay.

“Mr. Timmerman was singled out and beaten by his attackers because he is gay,” said James P. Madigan, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago. “He suffered physical as well as emotional injury and has shouldered significant expense in the aftermath of the attack.”