A Michigan appeals court recently issued a decision involving LGBTQ rights and Planet Fitness, and sent the case back to trial court. The case involves a woman who initiated legal action against Planet Fitness after the company revoked the woman’s membership because the woman issued a complaint that she saw a transgender woman in the Read More

After a Hawaii appeals court issued a decision that a bed and breakfast discriminated in denying a room to a same-sex couple, the Hawaii Supreme Court rejected an appeal of the lower court’s ruling. While this case stands in contrast to a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding discrimination, it represents the decision Read More

Ohio’s legislature recently introduced House Bill 658, which would require teachers to immediately inform parents if any signs of gender dysphoria are noticed. “Gender dysphoria” refers to the conflict that occurs between a person’s physical gender and the gender with which the person identifies. While the bill has had a committee hearing already, it has Read More

  An LGBTQ teacher recently initiated a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Mansfield Independent School District on the basis that the school discriminated against her based on her sexual orientation. The teacher was placed on leave after she showed students a photo of her wife. While the teacher’s contract with the district has been renewed, Read More

  In May of 2018, Democratic senators introduced a bill to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which according to the original sponsors of the law has been misappropriated and used to discriminate against numerous individual including those who identify as LGBTQ. This bill is significant because it has the potential to change a twenty-five-year-old Read More

A Michigan state commission recently determined that protections against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation are included in Michigan’s current ban on sex discrimination. This recent decision came after a 5-0 vote by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission approving this interpretation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. As a result of this decision, Read More

  In 2018, numerous anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced throughout the United States, but recently some of these laws became bills. Most noticeably, the states of Kansas and Oklahoma recently signed laws that allow adoption and foster care agencies to follow their religious beliefs when placing children with new families. The Details of These Laws In Read More

  Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee recently signed into law SB 7522, which protects LGBTQ individuals from conversion therapy. The bill is the result of efforts by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equal Rights Washington. These groups have long advocated for the prohibition of conversion therapy throughout the country. In response to this decision, Read More

Lambda Legal, in combination with the American Civil Liberties (ACLU) of Ohio, recently initiated legal action against the state of Ohio for its policy that prohibits people from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates. Ohio, as well as Kansas and Tennessee, are the only states that decline to change gender designations even after Read More

At the beginning of March, 2018, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in the case of EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. that discrimination based on transgender status violates Title VII prohibitions against sex-based discrimination.   How the Case Arose This case was initiated when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Read More