Lambda Legal Celebrates 50 Years Advancing The Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ People and Everyone Living With HIV; Commits to Being "Unstoppable" Ahead

Nation's oldest and largest legal non-profit advocating for the LGBTQ+ and HIV+ communities marks its #unprecedented past and #unstoppable future with advocacy events throughout the month of October 

The nonprofit organization, along with its donors and allies, pledges to battle for another 50 years in the courthouse and the statehouse against the renewed onslaught on the LGBTQ+ community with an emphasis on protecting transgender communities 

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Sept. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In October, during LGBTQ+ History Month, Lambda Legal – the country's oldest and largest nonprofit dedicated to advancing the legal rights of LGBTQ+ people and everyone living with HIV – will celebrate its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the leaders of the organization renew and underscore their commitment to continue that battle for the next 50 years, if necessary, and in particular to fight the recent wave of attacks targeting transgender and nonbinary people, LGBTQ+ youth, and other marginalized LGBTQ+ communities.

For the past 50 years, Lambda Legal has been at the forefront of the march to equality for the LGBTQ+ community and for everyone living with HIV. From winning the first challenge to HIV discrimination in 1983 and securing core protections for LGBTQ+ youth in schools, to its breakthrough victories securing the right to marriage for same-sex couples, Lambda Legal has driven fundamental progress in the fight for equality, dignity, and justice. 

Lambda Legal will honor its historic anniversary with a nationwide celebration, including an in-person event in New York City on October 18. The event will be livestreamed at regional watch parties in cities across the country. For more details, please visit 50years.LambdaLegal.org. The anniversary celebration will also include an exhibition held in partnership with the American LGBTQ History Museum that debuts in November, and the upcoming publication of a Lambda Legal history book in 2024.

"Since 1973, Lambda Legal has fiercely advocated for the LGBTQ+ community and, since the 1980s, for everyone living with HIV. No matter what effort has been launched to force us back into the closet or to undercut our fully lived equality – we have beaten back those efforts in the court of law," said Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal. "Now more than ever, the LGBTQ+ community must and will stand up and fight for our rights. At Lambda Legal, we vow to keep fighting for the next 50 years to protect and advance our rights." 

"Make no mistake, Lambda Legal is ready and prepared, and has no illusions about the fights ahead. For 50 years, we have confronted bigotry and opportunistic ignorance in many forms, defending our community and steadily establishing one-after-another breakthrough precedents in courts nationwide," stated Jenny Pizer, Chief Legal Officer of Lambda Legal. "Our litigation strategy in the coming decades will continue to be proactive and determined, challenging the cruel and blatantly unlawful policies flooding state legislatures and, now in the House of Representatives as well. We will continue to call on the American public and our elected leaders to reject the extremists working to impose their narrow, self-serving orthodoxy on all of us, to erase our entire LGBTQ+ community, and to make daily existence impossible for queer and trans youth. As we have for half a century, we will defend them fiercely. And in doing so, we will push our courts and country to honor ever more fully our founding principles of equality and freedom for everyone." 

As Lambda Legal celebrates its anniversary, the organization's dedicated team continues to fight anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, particularly anti-transgender policies in more than 27 states across the country challenging discrimination in healthcare, school policies and curricula, public school sports programs, access to school restrooms and other facilities, and access to accurate identity documents.

The historic anniversary will occur during LGBTQ+ History Month, surrounding National Coming Out Day on October 11, and in advance of Trans Awareness Week from November 13-19 and the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on November 20.

Learn more about Lambda Legal's 50th anniversary here. 

Contact: Tom Warnke; (c): 213-841-4503; Email [email protected]

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education and policy work. www.lambdalegal.org

SOURCE Lambda Legal