HIV

(Denver, Wednesday October 8, 2003) - Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund today welcomed Kaiser Permanente’s announcement that it has reconsidered its initial rejection of a kidney transplant for a Denver-area man with HIV and will now cover the procedure.

Late last month, Lambda Legal filed a formal appeal with Kaiser Permanente, asking the HMO to reverse its denial in light of a range of scientific data and John Carl’s personal health history and experience.

(Washington, D.C., October 29, 2003) - Lambda Legal today filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of a second applicant who was rejected for a Foreign Service job by the U.S. State Department because he has HIV. The State Department is due to respond next week to a federal lawsuit Lambda Legal filed in early September on behalf of another applicant challenging the government’s policy of prohibiting anyone with HIV from being hired as a Foreign Service officer, regardless of the applicant’s qualifications or health status.

(NEW YORK, November 27, 2000) — Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, with its fifth annual World AIDS Day report card, handed out dunce caps to Texas’ top health official and the New York Catholic diocese’s new bishop for their failures in responding to the AIDS epidemic.

Top grades this year went to a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, several lawmakers in California, New Jersey and New York, and activists including a crusading nun who operates the largest online database of AIDS resources.

(CHICAGO, October 17, 2000) — With a national authority on HIV and AIDS policy as keynote speaker at its Bon Foster Memorial Civil Rights Lecture, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund will focus attention on the state of AIDS prevention and discrimination protections at a critical time in public policy debate.

On Friday, October 20, A. Cornelius Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., will deliver Lambda’s Bon Foster Memorial Civil Rights Lecture to a packed crowd at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago.

(CHICAGO, October 16, 2000) — For tireless advocacy on behalf of people affected by HIV and AIDS, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund attorney Heather C. Sawyer will receive a Friend for Life Award from one of the nation’s leading health centers for the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community.

On Saturday, October 21, the Howard Brown Health Center presents its Friend for Life award to honor Sawyer, a staff attorney in Lambda’s Midwest Regional Office, as one of Chicago’s top civil rights lawyers.

(NEW YORK, October 5, 2000) — In a case critical for people with HIV, AIDS, and other disabilities, 20 civil rights organizations urge the United States Supreme Court to uphold the Americans with Disabilities Act’s protections against discrimination by state agencies, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Thursday.

(CHICAGO, October 4, 2000) — National authority on HIV and AIDS policy A. Cornelius Baker’s upcoming Bon Foster Memorial Civil Rights Lecture on Friday, October 20 comes at a crucial time for discrimination protections in the United States, said Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Wednesday.

On Friday, October 20, Baker will address a packed crowd at the Palmer House Hilton, examining the difficult challenges of fighting AIDS and AIDS-related discrimination and how that discrimination affects the lesbian and gay community.

(CHICAGO, September 14, 2000) — National authority on HIV and AIDS policy A. Cornelius Baker will deliver the Bon Foster Memorial Civil Rights Lecture next month, at a time when discrimination and health threats to American and international communities demand attention, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Wednesday.

(NEW YORK, September 13, 2000) — Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, together with 19 other civil rights organizations, is urging the United States Supreme Court to uphold the federal Americans with Disabilities Act as a protection against disability-based discrimination by state agencies.

(NEW YORK, June 22, 2000) —After nearly a decade of service, Suzanne B. Goldberg, one of the nation’s most experienced litigators in lesbian and gay civil rights, is departing the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization for lesbians, gay men and people with HIV. An attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund since 1991, Goldberg has played a pivotal role in the organization’s efforts to overturn sodomy laws, enforce fair immigration rules, defend domestic partner programs, and secure workplace protections.