Press Releases

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a letter to state birth registrars announcing a procedure change allowing a woman to be named as a parent on the Maryland birth certificate of the child born to her same-sex married spouse, without the necessity of a court order. Lambda Legal applauds this advance for Maryland children.

Today Lambda Legal's Director of Constitutional Litigation, Susan Sommer, will testify before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in support of Senate Bill 116, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would allow same-sex couples to marry.

Today the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in Lambda Legal's case defending Michele Hobbs, a lesbian mother who was denied access to her child when she and her former partner, the biological mother, ended their relationship.

Today Governor Quinn will sign the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act, which will go into effect June 1, 2011. To support families protected by the new law, Lambda Legal and Equality Illinois launched Civil Union Tracker.

Governor Quinn will sign civil unions into Illinois law on Monday, January 31, 2011, and spokespeople from Lambda Legal, the organization that provided significant technical and drafting support for the civil union bill, will be there and available for questions and interviews.

Today the full U.S Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a case regarding the New York adoption of a Louisiana-born baby boy by a same-sex couple after the state of Louisiana denied the child an accurate birth certificate reflecting both of his parents.

Lambda Legal and Just New Mexico are praising an opinion letter issued yesterday by New Mexico Attorney General Gary King finding that marriages between people of the same sex performed in states or countries where they are legal likely are valid in New Mexico as well.

Today a panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, certified to the California Supreme Court the question of whether California law either gives proponents of initiatives an interest in seeing that law enforced, or authorizes proponents to act in the place of the government to defend their initiative. Jennifer C. Pizer, National Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal, issued the following statement

In court papers filed today, Lambda Legal is seeking to intervene on behalf of Fair Wisconsin and five same-sex couples in a lawsuit brought by an antigay group attempting to strip away critical domestic partnership protections for same-sex couples and their families.

Lambda Legal announced the settlement of its lawsuit on behalf of a lesbian couple against Countrywide Financial in the Southern District of New York federal court after the Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae, announced policy changes allowing homeowners to add their domestic partners to their home’s deed without penalty.