TACOMA, WA — This week, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed a legal challenge seeking to invalidate the State of Washington’s 2018 law protecting minors from conversion therapy by state-licensed therapists. Conversion therapy is a dangerous and unethical practice that claims to change sexual orientation or gender identity and has been shown […]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – NCLR is saddened to hear of the passing of our long-time friend and LGBTQ philanthropist and trailblazer, Ambassador James (Jim) Hormel. Jim made history in 1999 when former President Bill Clinton appointed him to serve as the first openly LGBTQ United States Ambassador.   NCLR Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon issued the following […]

With a rise in hate violence across the country, a new report from the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) and 16 leading civil rights organizations provides a groundbreaking analysis of state and federal hate crime laws. The report features a foreword by Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard and Board/Chair President of the Matthew Shephard Foundation. (Read the report.) The partners releasing the report […]

NASHVILLE, TN – Renowned independent record label Curb Records and the Mike Curb Foundation today filed a federal lawsuit, Curb Records v. William Lee, challenging a new Tennessee law, HB 1182, that requires businesses to post a demeaning notice on their premises if they have policies allowing access for transgender individuals on an equal basis to […]

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that the City of Philadelphia violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by failing to give Catholic Social Services (CSS) an exemption from the nondiscrimination provision in city contracts, even though the contract authorized exemptions and the City had granted […]

Today, a coalition of leading LGBTQ rights groups joined together to release the most extensive summaries to date of scholarly data on the intersection of anti-LGBTQ and racial discrimination. The research brief, authored by the What We Know Project at Cornell University, found overwhelming consensus among peer-reviewed and other studies that discrimination inflicts profoundly greater […]

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) strongly supports the decision announced today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) not to finalize a rule proposed by the Trump administration that would have allowed taxpayer-funded homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender people. The rule that HUD officially rescinded today […]

DETROIT, MI – Yesterday, the Michigan Court of Appeals recognized two unmarried women as parents where one parent is a genetic parent and the other parent gave birth. LaNesha Matthews and Kyresha LeFever were a same-sex couple who had twins together using assisted reproduction. The children were conceived through in vitro fertilization using Kyresha’s eggs, […]

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the United States Senate made history by confirming Dr. Rachel Levine as the new Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. NCLR applauds the historic and bipartisan vote, which makes Dr. Levine the  first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate. A statement from NCLR Legal Director […]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – On Tuesday night, a shooter took the lives of eight individuals – including six Asian women – during a spate of violence at massage parlors in the Atlanta area. The shooter also wounded a ninth person before the gunman was apprehended. NCLR Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon has issued the following statement […]

Today, the United States Senate took a historic step by holding a hearing on the Equality Act for the first time. A statement from NCLR Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon on today’s hearings: “Today’s historic hearing in the United States Senate illustrates why it is so important for Congress to pass – and President Biden to […]

If passed in Senate and signed into law, historic legislation would bar discrimination against LGBTQ individuals, women, and people of color in education, employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and other aspects of everyday life WASHINGTON, DC – Today, on a bipartisan vote of 224-206, the United States House of Representatives passed the Equality Act (H.R. […]

If passed, historic legislation would bar discrimination against LGBTQ individuals, women, and people of color in education, employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and other aspects of everyday life WASHINGTON, DC – Today, NCLR lauded the reintroduction of the Equality Act (H.R. 5), a comprehensive federal civil rights bill that would create permanent protections for LGBTQ […]

WASHINGTON, DC – National Center for Lesbian Rights today hails the quick issuance of guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which clarifies that the federal Fair Housing Act fully protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination.   “Homelessness and housing insecurity are critical issues for many LGBTQ people – particularly transgender individuals […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Biden issued an executive order lifting the ban on transgender military service.  Since the outgoing administration began to enforce the ban in April 2019, dedicated transgender service members have been threatened with discharge, and qualified transgender Americans have been barred from enlisting, participating in ROTC, or attending military academies. From […]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Today, Joseph R. Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States after campaigning on a platform that advocated for the strongest protections for LGBTQ individuals in the history of the nation. As one of his first official acts in office, President Biden signed a series of executive orders […]

SB 225 will help people born with variations in their physical sex characteristics, some of whom identify as intersex, make their own choices about their bodies SACRAMENTO —  Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced SB 225: the Bodily Autonomy, Dignity and Choice Act, to provide children and their families a chance to make informed decisions about […]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – After witnessing President Trump’s role in instigating the violence that took place in Washington, D.C. yesterday, NCLR joins the growing bipartisan call for removal and impeachment of the president in order to protect the American people.   “Given the gravity of the President’s role in inciting yesterday’s violent attack on our […]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Last night, Georgia voters made history by electing Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to represent the Southern state in the United State Senate. Rev. Warnock’s election is truly historic as he will be the first Black Senator to represent Georgia in Congress. A statement from Imani Rupert-Gordon, NCLR Executive Director: […]

“So-called conversion therapy has harmed hundreds of thousands of Americans, leaving LGBTQ youth and their families with a lifetime of pain.” ATLANTA, GA — The Born Perfect campaign submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on Friday urging reversal of a recent decision by a three-judge federal panel validating the dangerous unethical practice known as conversion therapy. These […]