Impact Magazine

Every year for two decades, the National LGBT Bar Association has bestowed its highest honor, the Dan Bradley Award, on a member of the LGBT legal community who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of LGBT rights and those of people living with HIV.

At Lambda Legal, we spend most of our time making the case for equality in the courts—but we also fight for freedom in the community and in the chambers where laws are made. During Pride season, Lambda Legal staff, members and volunteers can be found in cities and towns around the country marching, handing out fact sheets, answering questions and having fun.

We believe in social change. We keep fighting for equality because we have seen so much achieved for LGBT people and people with HIV. Some days, the change around us seems so remarkable, it takes my breath away. Some days it comes far too slowly and we dig in and push harder.

In the 36 years that Lambda Legal has been fighting for equality, I don’t think there has ever been a moment when so many victories and opportunities are before us at the very same time that we face such enormous challenges.

John Paul Stevens is one of the nine justices who currently sit on the Supreme Court. He clearly understands the role of judges in America and has been on the majorities issuing important victories for our communities, from Romer v. Evans to Lawrence v. Texas. He is nearing retirement.

In 1986, I sat in the U.S. Supreme Court gallery when the Court heard Bowers v. Hardwick, a challenge to Georgia’s sodomy law. In a shamefully homophobic decision, the highest court in our nation said it was perfectly legal to brand lesbians and gay men as criminals. I was utterly devastated and vowed that we would do everything in our power to fight back.

Lambda Legal recently took up a case on behalf of the Hudson Valley, New York, LGBTQ Community Center, after its application for a nonprofit property tax exemption was denied. Although the center’s mission clearly entitles it to the exemption, the city of Kingston did not see it that way. W

It’s official. The summer of 2007 will go down as Lambda Legal’s summer of equality. Just before Labor Day, our big marriage win in Iowa capped a string of victories that touched the lives of many LGBT people, people with HIV and their families. What’s astonishing is the sheer breadth of America we covered — coast to coast from New Jersey to Washington State, sweeping through Oklahoma, Ohio and, of course, Iowa.