Kevin Cathcart
Executive Director, Lambda Legal
Lambda Legal's Year in Review 2011
Posted: 12/19/11 04:10 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-cathcart/lambda-legal-victories-2011_b_1154448.htmlAcross the country, Lambda Legal fought and won many key victories for LGBT people, people living with HIV, and their families. We're very proud of our accomplishments this year, which are summarized below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-cathcart/lambda-legal-victories-2011_b_1154448.htmlGEORGIA: Victory for Transgender Government Employees
In a powerful decision, a federal appeals court in Georgia upheld a lower court ruling that the Georgia General Assembly violated the Constitution and discriminated against Lambda Legal's client Vandy Beth Glenn, a legislative editor fired from her job after she told her supervisor that she planned to transition from male to female. The decision in Glenn v. Brumby came in a unanimous ruling of a three-judge panel, stating, "An individual cannot be punished because of his or her perceived gender-nonconformity. Because these protections are afforded to everyone, they cannot be denied to a transgender individual."
WISCONSIN: A Historic Victory for Transgender Health Care Access
In 2005 Wisconsin passed the draconian and inhumane "Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act," which prohibited prison doctors from providing transgender inmates with medically necessary hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery. Lambda Legal, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Wisconsin, led a challenge to the law, and in August 2011 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the right of transgender people to receive medical care while incarcerated. The court wrote that the law served "no valid penological purpose" and "amounts to torture."
