Lambda Legal

1973

In re Thom: Our first case, filed on our own behalf, forces the state of New York to allow Lambda Legal to form as a nonprofit organization. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is officially authorized to practice law October 18, 1973.

1974

Gay Students Association of University of New Hampshire v. Bonner: Lambda Legal helps persuade a court to require that the University of New Hampshire treat gay student groups like all other campus groups.

1975

In one of Lambda Legal’s first attempts to use the courts to reverse sex laws, Lambda Legal represents a man who, in violation of New York’s Penal Code, had been charged with “loitering for the purposes of deviant sex.”

1976

The first issue of Lambda Legal’s newsletter, “Lambda News,” is published.

1977

Lambda Legal helps a lesbian foster mother retain custody of her foster children.

1978

A professor fired for being gay is reinstated in his job as a result of a Lambda Legal lawsuit.

1979

Lambda Legal cosponsors the conference “Law and the Fight for Gay Rights,” at NYU Law School. Attended by 300 lawyers, law students and community members, it is the first such conference to be held on the east coast.

1980

People v. Onofre: New York’s sodomy law is struck down with the help of a Lambda Legal friend-of-the-court brief. The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to reverse the victory.

1981

Berg v. Clayton: Lambda Legal challenges the U.S. Military’s antigay discrimination policy and wins an honorable discharge and financial settlement for U.S. Naval Academy graduate Vernon “Copy” Berg.

1982

Lambda Legal hires Abby Rubenfeld as its first managing attorney.

1983

People v. West 12 Tenants Corp.: Lambda Legal, working with the New York Attorney General’s office, files the nation’s first AIDS-discrimination challenge and wins a court order stopping the efforts of neighbors to evict a doctor because he treated HIV-positive patients.

1984

Lambda Legal helps persuade the court to reject Texas A&M’s claim that a gay student group posed a public health risk because of AIDS and wins recognition for the group.

1985

Lambda Legal helps persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand a lower court ruling striking down an Oklahoma ban on pro-gay advocacy by teachers.

Gay Veterans Association, Inc. v. The American Legion: As a result of Lambda Legal’s lawsuit, the Gay Veterans Association is allowed to march in the New York Veterans Day Parade.

1986

Thomas Stoddard joins Lambda Legal as Executive Director.

The U.S. Supreme Court issues its infamous antigay decision upholding Michael Hardwick’s arrest under Georgia’s sodomy law; Lambda Legal helps develop a successful strategy to attack sodomy laws in state courts.

1987

Lambda Legal assists the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, coordinating amicus briefs in School Board of Nassau County v Arline, where the U.S. Supreme Court rules that people of contagious diseases can be covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

1988

Doe v. Centinela Hospital: In the first federal court ruling that AIDS discrimination violates disability discrimination laws, Lambda Legal compels a rehabilitation program to admit a man with HIV.

1989

Lambda Legal helps pressure makers of AZT to lower the drug’s price by 20 percent.

1990

Lambda Legal opens its first regional office in Los Angeles.

1991

A Minnesota court agrees with Lambda Legal that Karen Thompson should be the legal guardian for her partner, Sharon Kowalski, who was disabled in an accident.

After requesting a brief from Lambda Legal, a New Mexico appeals court is the first to recognize the relationship between a nonbiological lesbian mother and the children she helped raise.

Citizens for Responsible Behavior v. Superior Court: Lambda Legal intervenes and obtains an order barring the placement of an unconstitutional antigay initiative on a local ballot in Riverside, California.

In re Pitcherskaia: On behalf of a Russian lesbian, Lambda Legal establishes that forced conversion therapy constitutes persecution that can entitle gay people to asylum in the United States.

1992

Kevin Cathcart joins Lambda Legal as Executive Director.

In response to a Lambda Legal lawsuit, the University of Chicago adopts domestic partnership benefits for its employees.

Lambda Legal nears its 20th anniversary with a 21-member staff and one regional office in Los Angeles.

1993

Lesbian and Gay Teachers Association v. New York City Board of Education: Lambda Legal’s litigation results in a settlement requiring New York City to provide benefits to domestic partners of city employees and their dependent children that are identical to those given to married spouses and their children.

Lambda Legal becomes the first national lesbian and gay organization with an office in the Midwest, in Chicago.

Lambda Legal marks its 10th year of HIV/AIDS litigation and policy work.

1994

Lambda Legal celebrates its most successful quarter to date with sixteen victories.

1995

In the Matter of Jacob: A Lambda Legal lawsuit on behalf of a lesbian couple establishes that second-parent adoptions are allowed throughout New York State.

Lambda Legal announces the formation of its Marriage Project.

1996

Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart participates in the first White House Conference on HIV and AIDS.

Cammermeyer v. Perry: Lambda Legal obtains an order reinstating Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer as chief nurse of the Washington National Guard and declaring the pre-“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy unconstitutional.

Nabozny v. Podlesny: In the first ruling of its kind, a court finds that a school district could be liable for failing to stop antigay abuse. Lambda Legal settles the case on the client's behalf for nearly $1 million.

Romer v. Evans: Lambda Legal, the ACLU and the Colorado Legal Initiatives Project convince the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Colorado’s constitutional amendment barring state and local sexual orientation antidiscrimination measures and to rule that antigay sentiment cannot be the basis for laws.

Baehr v. Miike: A Hawaii trial court rules that the state has no valid reason not to allow same-sex couples to marry. While the ruling is eventually overturned by a state constitutional amendment, the case sparks the modern freedom-to-marry movement.

1997

Thomas Stoddard, former Lambda Legal Executive Director, dies at age 48. “Quotable and telegenic with an earnest demeanor, Mr. Stoddard became a spokesman and lobbyist for civil liberties generally and gay civil rights in particular, using his understated mien to disarm critics and win allies.” The New York Times

GLASS v. IRS: Lambda Legal intervenes on behalf of gay groups denied tax-exempt status by the IRS; the IRS reverses itself, gives groups status and undertakes sensitivity training.

Lambda Legal opens its third regional office, based in Atlanta, becoming one of the first national lesbian and gay organizations to have a fully staffed southern office.

Kevin Cathcart and 12 others meet with President Clinton in the second-ever meeting of a sitting president with lesbian and gay leaders.

1998

Lambda Legal files a friend-of-the-court brief in the GLAD case that wins a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that federal prohibitions on discriminating against people with disabilities may be used to protect people with HIV.

Twelve years after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s sodomy law, Lambda Legal helps convince the Georgia Supreme Court to strike it down.

Coretta Scott King gives the keynote address at the annual Bon Foster Civil Rights Lecture in Chicago.

1999

Lambda Legal helps convince the New Jersey Supreme Court to grant visitation rights to nonbiological parents.

Lambda Legal submits a friend-of-the-court brief in Baker v. Vermont — the case brought by GLAD that leads to Vermont's historic civil unions.

2000

Colín v. Orange Unified School District: Lambda Legal and People For the American Way Foundation obtain the first court order requiring a school district to allow a gay-straight alliance to meet on a high school campus.

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale: Although Lambda Legal’s challenge to the Boy Scouts’ antigay policy is narrowly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, the case brings national attention to and action over the Boy Scouts’ exclusionary practices.

2001

Brandon v. Richardson County: Lambda Legal assists Brandon Teena’s mother with an appeal against the sheriff who humiliated Teena, a transgender man, and failed to protect him from being murdered after his rape.

Henkle v. Gregory: Lambda Legal’s school harassment case establishes that LGBT students have a First Amendment right to be “out” at school.

2002

Lambda Legal helps convince a federal appeals court that sexual harassment of a gay employee because of gender stereotypes is illegal.

Lambda Legal opens its South Central office in Dallas in June.

2003

Lawrence v. Texas: Lambda Legal convinces the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down all remaining sodomy laws and affirm the constitutional liberty to engage in private, consensual sexual intimacy without government interference.

2004

Dunbar v. Foot Locker, Inc.: Settlement of Lambda Legal’s workplace discrimination case reaps not only monetary damages for our client, but also workplace reforms, including more vigorous antidiscrimination training.

Matter of Matthew Cusick and Cirque du Soleil: Lambda Legal secures a settlement for Matthew Cusick, a gymnast fired because of his HIV status. The settlement is the largest ever for an HIV-discrimination complaint settled with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and changes Cirque du Soleil’s HIV policy worldwide.

2005

Gwin v. Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System: Lambda Legal wins an appeal helping people with HIV obtain needed organ transplants.

T.B. v. L.R.M.: Pennsylvania courts rule that someone who assumes parental status and performs parental duties with the consent of a legal parent may seek visitation and custody — and that the legal parent cannot prevent visitation by alienating the child from that co-parent.

Koebke v. Bernardo Heights Country Club: Lambda Legal convinces California Supreme Court to rule that businesses in the state must provide the same benefits to registered domestic partners as they offer to spouses.

Knight v. Schwarzenegger: California’s domestic partnership law, which Lambda Legal helped draft, is upheld against right-wing attack in a lawsuit fought by Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the ACLU.

2006

In re Infant Girl W.: Indiana court approves joint adoptions by same-sex couples in a Lambda Legal appeal.

Lewis v. Harris: Lambda Legal wins a unanimous ruling in the New Jersey Supreme Court that same-sex couples must be provided all the rights and responsibilities of marriage; this ruling leads to the quick passage of a civil union law.

2007

Grobeson v. City of Los Angeles: Lambda Legal secures protections against sexual orientation discrimination for 50,000 municipal employees through a partial settlement.

Soto Vega v. Gonzales: Lambda Legal wins asylum for a gay man from Mexico, overturning a judge’s initial ruling that, although the man had been persecuted by the Mexican police based on his sexual orientation, he could escape harm because he didn’t “look gay” to the judge.

Finstuen v. Edmondson: An Oklahoma law that denied recognition of out-of-state adoptions by same-sex couples is held unconstitutional in a Lambda Legal lawsuit.

Varnum v. Brien (open): Lambda Legal won a trial court victory on behalf of five same-sex Iowa couples seeking the freedom to marry.

2008

Taylor v. Rice: Two weeks before trial, the State Department lifts its ban on hiring people with HIV as Foreign Service Officers, ending Lambda Legal’s five-year case challenging this discriminatory policy.