Lambda Legal’s South Central Regional Director Shelly Skeen
TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
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Over the course of the last 52-plus years, Lambda Legal has played a lead role in the most important cases for LGBTQ+ equality — from marriage equality to decriminalizing sex between adults of the same gender to securing anti-discrimination protections in employment, and many more.
As the organization prepares for its annual Landmark, set for Oct. 11 in Dallas, Lambda Legal’s South Central Regional Director Shelly Skeen offered a crash course in the highs and lows in litigation for equality.
Earlier this month, on Sept. 9, in the organization’s most recent win, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ordered the U.S. Department of State to process the passport applications of seven transgender U.S. citizens with accurate sex markers, block enforcement of the Trump administration policy requiring all passports to use only sex markers based on gender assigned at birth.
And currently pending before the Texas State Supreme Court PFLAG v. Abbott in which Lambda Legal won an injunction to block Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services Child Protective Services division to launch child abuse investigations of parents who support their transgender children in accessing gender-affirming health care.
Most people are familiar with Lambda’s landmark cases that resulted in sodomy laws being overturned across the U.S. (Lawrence v. Texas, 2004), in marriage equality becoming the law of the land (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015), and in anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the workplace being banned (Zarda v. Altitude Express, 2019, and Bostock v. Clayton County, 2020).
A few others of the organization’s landmark cases include:
- Glenn v. Brumby, et al. in 2011 in which Vandy Beth Glenn sued the state of Georgia after being fired from her state government job when she started undergoing gender-affirming medical treatments. Lambda Legal secured a court ruling declaring her firing unconstitutional, making it the most important federal court as of that date support the rights of trans employees.
- Gay Students Organization v. Bonner in 1974 in which gay students at the University of New Hampshire won the right to be treated just like any other student group on campus.
- People v. West 12 Tenants Corp. in 1983 in which AIDS researcher Dr. Joseph Sonnabend challenged efforts by his neighbors to evict him after he opened a clinic in Greenwich Village to treat people with HIV. It was the nation’s first HIV discrimination lawsuit.
- Henkle v. Gregory in 2001 in which Lambda Legal filed suit on behalf of gay ninth-grader who was himself punished by school after being harassed, threatened and beaten by classmates. Lambda Legal secured the largest-ever pretrial award of its kind in a settlement requiring the district to implement policies protecting LGBTQ+ students and establishing that LGBTQ+ students have a First Amendment right to be out at school.
Cases Lambda Legal is currently litigating include:
- San Francisco AIDS Foundation v. Trump filed in February this year, in which multiple LGBTQ+ health and HIV organizations are challenging three Trump executive orders seeking to erase trans people from public life.
- National Urban League v. Trump filed in February this year on behalf of nonprofit advocacy organizations challenging Trump executive orders attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and transgender people.
- Schilling v. Trump filed in February this year to challenge Trump’s executive order banning transgender men and women from military service.
- PFLAG v. Trump filed in February this year on behalf of PFLAG, GLMA, transgender young adults and families with transgender children to challenge Trump’s executive order attempting to ban gender-affirming health care for trans minors.
- Braidwood v. Becerra filed in October 2024 to require insurance providers to continue to cover PrEP medication and other HIV preventative services.
- PFLAG v. Office of the Attorney General of Texas filed in February 2024 addressing Texas AG Ken Paxton’s demand that PFLAG turn over documents, communications and information related to the organization’s working helping families with trans children.
- Soe v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners filed in January 2024 on behalf of five transgender youth in Louisiana and their families to block implementation of a health care ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors.
- Iowa Safe Schools, et al v. Reynolds filed in November 2023 to block enforcement of an Iowa state law seeking to silence LGBTQ+ students, erase any mention of LGBTQ+ people from public schools and ban books with LGBTQ+ content.
- Voe v. Mansfield filed in October 2023 to block implementation of a North Caroline law banning medically necessary gender affirming care for trans youth.
- Noe, et al. v. Parson filed in July 2023 to block a Missouri state law preventing trans adolescents from accessing evidence-based gender-affirming medical care.
- John Doe v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department filed in July 2023 challenging the Nashville PD’s policies rejecting all applicants with HIV.
- Loe, et al. v. Texas filed in July 2023 to block the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors.
- Roe, et al. v. Critchfield, et al. filed in July 2023 against Idaho State Superintendent of Education Debbie Critchfield and other Idaho school offices challenging the state’s school facilities law that singles out trans students for discriminatory treatment.
- A.B. v. Premera Blue Cross filed in June 2023 challenging the insurance provider’s arbitrary and categorical policy denying coverage for gender-affirming chest surgery for patients under 18, regardless of the patient’s medical needs.
- L.W., et al. v Skrmetti, filed in April 21 to challenge Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming health care for trans youth.