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VICTORY! Court Rules Alaska’s Denial of Health Care to Transgender Employee is Unlawful Discrimination

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By Lambda Legal

March 6, 2020

A federal district court today ruled in favor of Lambda Legal client Jennifer Fletcher and ordered that the State of Alaska’s denial of health care coverage to a legislative librarian based on its blanket exclusion of medically necessary transition-related surgical treatment from AlaskaCare, the state employee health care plan, is unlawful sex discrimination that violates federal law.

See Also: Anti-LGBT Laws Rulings and Amendments, Health Care Fairness, Transgender Rights, Alaska
The Social Security Administration Is Refusing to Provide Survivor's Benefits to This 66-Year-Old Gay Widower

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By Lambda Legal

March 6, 2020

Lambda Legal today asked a federal court to end the U.S. Social Security Administration’s (SSA) refusal to provide monthly spousal survivor’s benefits to a 66-year-old gay man whose husband and partner of 43 years died six months after Arizona began allowing same-sex couples to marry.

See Also: Same-sex relationships, Seniors, Arizona
Puerto Rico Can't Turn Back the Clock on Trans Rights

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By Lambda Legal

March 3, 2020

Today, Lambda Legal warned Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced that the proposed new Civil Code for the Commonwealth, which is now before the Puerto Rico Senate, is in clear contempt of a 2018 federal court order that declared unconstitutional the island’s policy prohibiting transgender Puerto Ricans from correcting their birth certificates and could expose the Puerto Rican government to sanctions and penalties.

See Also: Transgender Rights, Puerto Rico
Idaho House Passes Bill Banning Trans People from Correcting Gender on Birth Certificates

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By Lambda Legal

February 27, 2020

The Idaho House of Representatives today passed a bill that would ban transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a federal court ruling two years ago declaring such a ban unconstitutional.

See Also: Transgender Rights, Idaho
We're Suing South Carolina for Discriminating Against LGBTQ Students

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By Lambda Legal

February 26, 2020

See Also: Anti-LGBT Rulings, Laws and Amendments, Youth and Schools, South Carolina
We Call for #JusticeForAlexa

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By Lambda Legal

February 25, 2020

After news of the murder of Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, known as Alexa, a transgender woman in Puerto Rico in a possible hate crime, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Senior Attorney at Lambda Legal, issued a statement.

See Also: Transgender Rights, Puerto Rico
Supreme Court Needs to Reject Religion as Legal Grounds for Discrimination in Foster Care

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By Lambda Legal

February 24, 2020

“The Supreme Court has the opportunity to affirm the basic principle that when agencies accept government money to provide services to children involved in the public foster care system, their religious beliefs are not a license to discriminate.”
Alaska’s Policy Denying Health Care Coverage for Transgender Employees Must End

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By Lambda Legal

February 19, 2020

Lambda Legal today urged the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska to end the State of Alaska’s blanket exclusion of medically necessary transition-related surgical treatment from AlaskaCare, the state employee health care plan, and to obtain relief for Jennifer Fletcher, a state legislative librarian, who was forced to pay out of pocket for her medical treatment.

See Also: Anti-LGBT Laws Rulings and Amendments, Health Care Fairness, Transgender Rights, Alaska
Our Response to President Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address

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By Lambda Legal

February 4, 2020
Judge Sides with Same-Sex Partners Denied Equal Access to Social Security Survivor’s Benefits

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By Lambda Legal

January 31, 2020

A federal magistrate judge today recommended striking down as unconstitutional the U.S. Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) categorical denial of survivor’s benefits to surviving same-sex partners who were barred from marrying due to discriminatory state marriage bans.

See Also: Marriage Relationships and Family Protections, Same-sex relationships, Seniors, Washington