In the past few months, Lambda Legal’s work, expertise and legal expertise have been included in dozens of media publications. We got coverage in national outlets such as Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue and the Washington Post, and dozens of articles centered on our filing in Montana, our pledge to sue Texas, the continued work in Missouri, the news out of Oklahoma, and the series of anti-LGBTQ+ signed laws in Florida.
With so many media hits, our brave clients, tenacious attorneys and staff, and dedication to fighting for lived equality for LGBTQ+ people and everyone living with HIV are seen. Most importantly, this coverage hopefully allows us to educate, combat misinformation and change hearts and minds.
Take a look at some spotlight media hits:
Harper’s Bazaar: “When It Comes to My Trans Daughter, Love Is the Only Answer”
For Mother’s Day, client Heather Jackson spoke in-depth about her daughter, Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year-old trans child who the state of West Virginia is fighting to ban from playing in girls’ sports. Heather shares how Becky inspires her every day, the current attack on trans children in the U.S., and why parents need to love and support their trans children.
“One of the most important things I’ve learned is that children like ours desperately need parental support. Without it, they are more likely to be unhoused or incarcerated, to suffer from mental health issues, and to commit suicide. This is about life and death. That’s what I wish governors like our Jim Justice, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, and Texas’s Greg Abbott—who want to strip our children of their dignity—would understand. You don’t know more than we parents do. You don’t know more than the doctors and the years of research that confirm that gender-affirming care is safe and saves lives. You don’t know more than the studies that have measured the profound impact that participation and inclusion in school sports have on young people. But given these politicians and their supporters’ transphobia, the misinformation they spread, and the scare tactics they use, I often wonder if science and facts even matter to them. Whether they do or not, I will continue to stand by my daughter.”
Teen Vogue: “Supreme Court LGBTQ+ Rights Case: What’s At Stake in 303 Creative v. Elenis”
As we gear up for the Supreme Court to hand down some major decisions in the next few months, one pressing case to watch for is 303 Creative v. Elenis, which involves a Denver-based company that refuses to offer wedding website design services to same-sex couples. The owner, Lori Smith, also wants to post a message on her site explaining her discriminatory stance. Both actions would violate Colorado’s law that prohibits businesses that are open to the public from discriminating against LGBTQ+ people or announcing their intent to do so. This case raises the question of whether nondiscrimination laws can be circumvented by businesses’ claims that being required to treat all customers equally violates their right of expression.
Jennifer Pizer, Lambda Legal’s Chief Legal Officer, stresses that the state is not forcing Smith to sell a particular service or create a particular message that goes against her beliefs, BUT Colorado’s public accommodations law only requires businesses to provide the same goods or services to people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
“There’s a range of all sorts of reasons that a business can refuse to serve a customer, but not based on discriminatory reasons that are prohibited by the statute. She’s engaged in conduct very well calculated to communicate to the entire country that she opposes marriage for same-sex couples, but if she wants to sell a particular service that she has chosen to sell, then she should be required to do that consistently to the state law.”
KXAN-TV (NBC Austin): Does Texas’ ‘drag ban bill’ target transgender Texans?
In the wake of a Texas law that bans ”sexually oriented performances” in the presence of minors, LGBTQ+ advocates have serious concerns that this could also impact transgender Texans. But as our South Central Regional Director, Shelly Skeen tells NBC Austin, that most likely, will not be the case.
“I don’t want people to feel like they can’t walk around and do their daily lives if they’re trans, if they’re non-binary or they don’t conform with old-school gender roles. I want people to feel like they can still do what they would normally do. I don’t want people to be scared by this bill.”
However, Skeen admits that “people who are trans are targeted, people who are Black and trans are even more targeted. This law — just by its passage — gives authorities a little bit more reason to say, ‘Well, I can come after somebody who’s trans.’”
Sea of Change Podcast: Sasha Buchert of Lambda Legal: The Case For LGBTQ Equality
In the May 9, 2023 episode of the podcast Sea of Change, Sasha Buchert, Lambda Legal’s Senior Attorney and Director of Nonbinary and Transgender Rights, spoke in-depth about the right wing’s persistent attack on the LGBTQ+ community and the erosion of hard-fought rights (also thanks to the conservative Supreme Court). Buchert also discusses the obstacles that transgender youth are facing in states such as Texas, Florida and Iowa, LGBTQ+ military personnel and the fight to serve openly and this most recent wave of the culture wars.
“We’ve seen an uptick every year and the number of bills that are being filed, but it’s really skyrocketed in the last year or two for sure. The Trump administration, the far right, was, really was activated during that time and with the Biden administration coming in and moving quickly to, you know, address some of the real damage that we saw in the federal level, that was really a welcome, relief that had by doing things like resending the ban on open transgender military service and some of the healthcare.
But I think that also polarized and galvanized the far right to pursue discrimination wherever they can, in my opinion. And they really seized the moment there and move to the statehouses to try to inflict the harassment and discrimination that they couldn’t do at the federal level targeting vulnerable communities and you know, and I think that that’s been supercharged to my opinion, as you said by the Dobbs decision that was issued just last year. It feels like it’s been in place for 20 years in some ways, but and there’s been. Massive harm that’s been done across the board.
But I think there are some serious parallels, not just the clear language and the decision itself, you know, calling for, you know, the Court, to revisit cases involving LGBTQ folks and contraceptive care and privacy, that that alone is troubling enough, but I think that one of the biggest concerns that in just talking about that, in particular, that decision and the impact it’s had on the state attacks that we’re seeing.”
Catch up on the current status of our cases by reading our blog: “Case Roundup: From Florida to Missouri to Tennessee, Here’s Where Lambda Legal Is Challenging Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws