Press Releases

(New York, August 24, 2011) - Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would implement new procedures for assessing deportation and removal cases. The changes are designed to align immigration cases with federal immigration priorities, and are expected to result in the administrative closure of deportation and removal cases for immigrants with U.S.

(Philadelphia, PA August 18, 2011) - Today Lambda Legal announced the resolution of a discrimination complaint with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) against the City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Youth Study Center (YSC) among others. Lambda Legal filed the complaint on behalf of L.P.

In response to the court's swift decision in Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Springfield-in-Illinois et al. v. Illinois et al, Lambda Legal's Marriage Project Director Camilla Taylor issued the following statement:

(Chicago, IL, August 16, 2011) - Today Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of several child welfare organizations including the Evan B. Donaldson Institute, the National Association of Social Workers and its Illinois chapter in a case brought by four Dioceses of Catholic Charities against the state of Illinois. These Dioceses seek to force the state to fund their foster care services even though they refuse to follow state law by licensing couples in civil unions as foster parents, claiming they are exempt from state nondiscrimination requirements on religious grounds.

The National LGBT Bar Association has named Lambda Legal Staff Attorneys Tara Borelli and Dru Levasseur to its Class of 2011 Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 Award.

The nation's leading child welfare organizations have joined family law and constitutional scholars in support of Lambda Legal's petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a same-sex couple seeking an accurate birth certificate for their Louisiana-born son whom they adopted in New York. The state of Louisiana has refused to issue a birth certificate listing both fathers as the boy's parents.

Following Lambda Legal's demand letter to Short Line Bus Company on behalf of Ari Gold, who was harassed by a driver for holding his boyfriend's hand, Short Line Bus Company has confirmed it has appropriately disciplined the driver and pledged to conduct antidiscrimination training for all the company's drivers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today upheld the right of transgender people to receive medical care while they are incarcerated. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Lambda Legal had challenged a Wisconsin law that prohibited prison doctors from prescribing hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery to transgender inmates.

(New York, July 28, 2011) — Lambda Legal filed a discrimination lawsuit today in Queens County Supreme Court against the Sizzler Restaurant in Forest Hills, Queens on behalf of Liza Friedlander, who was violently attacked while trying to dine with friends at her favorite breakfast spot.

(New York, July 24, 2011)—In celebration of the first day same-sex couples can wed in New York, Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal: