Doe v. Thornbury
Our Voices
In 2023, Florida passed SB254 which bans all transgender medical care for minors, making the provision of such care a felony crime. NCLR, along with GLAD, HRC Foundation, Southern Legal Counsel, and Lowenstein Sandler, filed a case on behalf of transgender youth and their parents to challenge the ban on the grounds that it violated the Equal Protection Rights of trans youth and the Due Process Right of parents to oversee their child’s medical care. In the Third Amended Complaint, we also added...
Ireland v. Hegseth
Doe v. Bondi
On January 28, 2025, The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), and Joseph Wardenski, Principal Attorney, Wardenski P.C. have filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging President Trump’s January 27, 2025, order banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. The suit was filed on equal protection grounds on behalf of six active service members and two...
This case is about a married lesbian couple who used a known sperm donor to have a child. The couple raised the child together for more than two years. When the couple divorced, the sperm donor brought a lawsuit alleging that he—not the birth mother’s former spouse—is the child’s second legal parent. Under Oklahoma’s Uniform Parentage Act, there is a strong presumption that both spouses are the legal parents of a child born to a married couple. That presumption can only be challenged...
In 2023, the State of Michigan passed PA 117 and PA 118, banning conversion therapy for minors. Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties, a nonprofit that “carries out the work of the Roman Catholic Church,” and Emily McJones, a Lansing-based therapist who provides evidence-based treatments that is faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church, brought suit claiming the ban is too broad and violates the constitutional rights of counselors. The plaintiffs said they have...
Arizona’s Senate Bill (S.B.) 1165 bans transgender girls from competing on school sports teams at every grade and competition level no matter the sport and without regard for each girl’s individual circumstances. In April 2023, NCLR and the law firms Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Osborn Maledon P.A. filed a case challenging this ban, representing two transgender girls who are barred from playing the sports they love. The complaint alleges that S.B. 1165 violates the Equal Protection Clause...
On March 28, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB 1557 – widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law – which seeks to censor discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida’s public schools. The law seeks to create a climate of fear, uncertainty, and financial risk for any Florida school that wishes to be an inclusive place of learning. Under this law, even mentioning the existence of LGBTQ people in the classroom can prompt a costly private lawsuit...
In 2020, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law HB 500 – the so-called “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” – making Idaho the first state to pass a law banning transgender athletes from participating in sports. The law would bar women and girls who are transgender, and many who are intersex, from taking part in school sports consistent with their gender identity. It would also institute a “dispute” process, which would require female athletes to verify their biological sex through an...
