Lambda Legal, A Nonprofit Backing LGBTQIA+ Rights, Overshoots Fundraising Goal

The nonprofit legal aid group Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, has raised $285 million at a time when attacks on the rights of gay, intersex, and transgender people have intensified, Thalia Beaty reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The nonprofit has won court cases that ended bans on same-sex marriage in 2015 and that struck down laws criminalizing sex between gay adults in 2003. I Photo: Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings announced the results on Thursday, saying the group exceeded its original fundraising goal by $105 million. “I think this is a statement by the LGBTQ+ community that we will not go back,” Jennings said in an interview.

The nonprofit has won court cases that ended bans on same-sex marriage in 2015 and that struck down laws criminalizing sex between gay adults in 2003.

It launched the fundraising campaign quietly in 2022 in response to a wave of bills in state legislatures targeting LGBTQ+ rights.

Some of those laws sought to limit the discussion of sexuality and gender in schools, remove books featuring LGBTQ+ characters from school libraries, ban public drag shows, prohibit students from using their preferred pronouns, and restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

President Donald Trump’s administration ordered transgender individuals to leave the military, sought to remove fair housing protections for them, and denied the existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people through an executive order recognizing only two sexes.