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Lambda Legal, GLAD Law, Mintz and Public Health Advocates Urge Supreme Court to Protect Access to HIV Prevention in Landmark Case

Experts Warn of Tens of Thousands of Potential New HIV Cases and Billions in Health Care Costs if No-cost Access to PrEP is Discontinued

Lambda Legal, GLAD Law and Mintz, alongside leading HIV, LGBTQ+, and healthcare organizations, have submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc., urging the Court to uphold no-cost access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and other critical preventive healthcare services. The brief highlights the devastating public health consequences of undermining access to PrEP, a medication that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by 99% when taken as prescribed.

“The lower court ruling in Braidwood is rooted in stigma and bigotry towards the LGBTQ+ community and people vulnerable to HIV,” said Dr. Stephen Lee, NASTAD Executive Director. “It will cause incalculable harm to our efforts to end the HIV epidemic. We are pleased to file an amicus brief to help offer insight into why this decision is so detrimental to our HIV/AIDS public health system.”

“For decades, bipartisan public health efforts have helped turn the tide on the HIV epidemic. This case threatens to unravel that progress by making PrEP unaffordable for many of the communities most at risk,” said Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal HIV Project Director. “No-cost access to PrEP is not only a medical necessity, it is a moral and legal imperative in the fight to end HIV. If we want to achieve the goal of eradicating HIV we should be expanding access to this medication, not limiting it.”

The brief, submitted on behalf of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and a coalition of HIV and healthcare advocates, details the indisputable medical evidence supporting PrEP and the catastrophic consequences of restricting access. Since its FDA approval in 2012, PrEP has been a game-changer in HIV prevention, particularly for Black and Latine communities as well as youth, which continue to face disproportionate rates of new infections.

“Copays and deductibles deter people from accessing healthcare,” said Ben Klein, Senior Director of Litigation and HIV Law at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law). “PrEP is nearly 100% effective at preventing transmission of HIV but it is already underutilized, particularly among Black and Latino communities. As the brief filed today by NASTAD and other HIV experts demonstrates, allowing the lower court’s ruling in Braidwood to stand will exacerbate racial health disparities, increase new HIV diagnoses by the tens of thousands, and have devastating consequences on our efforts to end the epidemic.”

At its core, this case is about more than just PrEP, it is a direct attack on the foundation of preventive healthcare in the United States and a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The preventive services mandate ensures that millions of Americans have access to critical screenings, vaccines, and treatments without financial barriers, dramatically improving public health outcomes. From HIV prevention to cancer screenings, from childhood immunizations to maternal health care, these services save lives, reduce long-term healthcare costs, and prevent the spread of disease. This case is a referendum on whether the United States will continue investing in evidence-based, cost-effective public health strategies.

Lambda Legal, GLAD Law, and Mintz remain steadfast in their commitment to advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and individuals living with or at risk of HIV. The organizations urge the Court to recognize the critical role of preventive healthcare in protecting public health and to reject efforts that seek to dismantle these life-saving protections.

Learn more about the case.

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From the Front Lines: The Urgency of Our Work

Blog by Jennifer Levi, Senior Director of Queer and Transgender Rights

Jennifer Levi

Sunday brought another slew of late-night filings because this administration is refusing to follow basic rule of law principles, following two court orders that temporarily block them from moving transgender women to men’s prisons. It caused me to think even more deeply about the urgency of GLAD Law’s work. I am grateful for GLAD Law digging in so deeply in this moment and, in so doing, spurring our colleague organizations and the local communities of which we are all a part to stand up to injustice.

Here’s why my current legal work feels so urgent.

While the Trump administration’s policies are based on their belief that transgender people don’t exist (we, of course, exist, have through the generations, and are not going to stop), what’s happening right now is especially alarming: they’re testing how much brutality Americans will tolerate against vulnerable people.

Right out of the gate, I knew we had to challenge the Day 1 “Gender Ideology Order” directing the transfer of transgender women to men’s prisons. This brutal order isn’t just about transgender women – though the government’s own data shows they face 10 times the risk of violence in men’s prisons than others. It’s testing how we, as Americans, respond to cruelty and brutality being carried out in our name. It’s no coincidence that the part of the Executive Order directing the transfer of women to men’s facilities was the most concrete and the most quickly acted upon by the new administration – that’s why we had to move so quickly, why I found myself flying to DC on a minute’s notice.

What’s at stake in this moment goes far beyond any single policy – it’s about whether we’ll maintain the moral strength to recognize and resist authoritarianism.

I learned crucial lessons as a kid raised on a visual diet of Holocaust documentaries (and what Jewish kid in the 70s wasn’t that kid), but I understand them differently now. Do you know Martin Niemöller’s famous poem? The one that begins, ‘First they came for the communists‘? I used to think it was simply warning us to stick up for others because we might be next. But now I see its deeper truth. When a regime with no moral values—or whose only value is the pursuit of absolute power—targets its first group for brutalization, that moment is crucial. What I understood when I learned it was the child’s lesson: defend others because you might be next. That’s true and important. But the adult understanding cuts deeper: if you don’t act when that first group is targeted, you become complicit in a fundamental shift in governance. You become part of the machinery that attacks and degrades others.

By staying silent, you slowly and incrementally abandon your own values and lose track of your moral compass. So by the time the government turns on you, it hardly matters – you’ve already become part of their machinery of control, another instrument in a regime that devalues human life to maintain its grip on power. When you accept the brutalization of the weakest and most rejected corners of your society, what’s happening is that you are actively becoming a participant in a terrible experiment. Your government is testing just how much brutalization and torture you can tolerate. They do it openly because that’s the only real test – seeing what you’ll accept when you can’t pretend you don’t see it, which is also why we are seeing it escalate. More brutality and more open displays of it.

That is what is happening right now. The administration is testing those of us not bearing the most significant weight of their brutality, even as transgender women in prison, transgender homeless people being turned away from shelters, and transgender adolescents losing medical care face the most immediate and severe impacts. They are testing the rest of us to see how much we can and will live with and tolerate in a country that brutalizes people. How much will we step in, or how much do we even think we can step in to protect others? Like, right now.

This isn’t about policy or governance. It’s about a regime marching towards total control and understanding that such control requires not just brutalizing vulnerable people, but making the rest of us either actively complicit in or numb to that brutalization. When we accept their rewriting of reality at home – their lying claims that transgender people don’t exist or aren’t worthy of protection or even humanity – we’re being cultivated to accept bigger lies.

This isn’t just about how this country will treat a small, vulnerable group – though transgender rights have become an alarming measure of our democracy’s health – it’s about what kind of country we’re willing to be.

We can see it rolling out on the global stage as well with Ukraine: Trump calling Zelenskyy a dictator and criticizing him for supposedly not holding elections, completely reversing his earlier statements about Ukraine’s right to exist. This isn’t random: It’s the same cold, calculated strategy of moral erosion. He’s testing how much reality-bending the American public will accept, because each time we let these lies stand and allow ourselves to become desensitized to the brutalization they enable, we move closer to accepting autocratic control both at home and abroad. What’s at stake in this moment goes far beyond any single policy – it’s about whether we’ll maintain the moral strength to recognize and resist authoritarianism.

I’ve spent years fighting state transgender health care bans and helping create new legal roadmaps, like in Florida, where we got a landmark decision recognizing the DeSantis administration’s targeted effort to deny transgender people’s existence and right to thrive. That experience has led me to focus now on challenging the federal government’s brutalization of transgender women in prisons and defending some of the most courageous plaintiffs you’d ever want to know – transgender service members who put their lives on the line for their country every day.

I’m fighting for the America I thought I knew growing up – the one that, for me at least, fostered a love of country and the Constitution that forms its backbone. It’s the one that taught me a fundamental truth: everyone deserves to live with dignity and have their worth seen and recognized by others – whether they hold power or have been stigmatized and pushed to society’s dark recesses. The stakes couldn’t be higher. This isn’t just about how this country will treat a small, vulnerable group – though transgender rights have become an alarming measure of our democracy’s health – it’s about what kind of country we’re willing to be.

And our response to the treatment of vulnerable people here isn’t just about domestic policy – it’s about whether we’ll maintain the moral strength to recognize and resist authoritarianism in all its forms. This beautiful, brilliant experiment in democracy that I have loved and revered throughout my life has always been flawed. But it has allowed many people to thrive – and has immense potential for so many more. Now, it may be approaching some kind of ending – but I’m not there yet. Work remains to uphold its values, principles, and the practical ways it makes life better for people. We all have to do our part – and for many of us, far more than our part – to challenge, call out, and oppose the brutalization happening in our midst.

We must act even when we think it doesn’t touch us directly, or we tell ourselves it doesn’t. Because distance from brutality offers no protection from its reach.

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The Resistance Brief: This week in the fight for justice

For the record

Blog by Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Executive Director

Earlier in the week, I attended a federal court hearing in our case challenging the Trump administration’s ban on transgender service members (Talbott v. Trump). At the hearing, we argued for a Preliminary Injunction to block the Order’s enforcement, allow transgender people to continue to enlist and serve on the same terms as all people who want to serve their country and meet the rigorous standards to do so, and resume transgender service members’ access to medical care.

During day two of the hearing, the judge asked U.S. Attorney Jason Lynch if he agreed that transgender people have been discriminated against. U.S. Attorney Jason Lynch concurred that trans people have experienced discrimination, but he did not believe the discrimination proves trans people are a quasi-suspect class subject to protection under the Constitution.

Five plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Talbott v. Trump, stand in formalwear after a court hearing. — *Talbott v. Trump* plaintiffs

What followed reminded me of a couple of things I forgot to note in last week’s Resistance Brief: Why the Courts Still Matter: the importance of the public record and the courage of plaintiffs.

Courts keep permanent records of their proceedings which means that as cases are litigated, history is being recorded.

Forever, it will be noted that the court responded to Lynch’s assertion by stating all the ways transgender people have been harmed by their country over the last three weeks. She spoke about how the president has tried to block schools from using federals funds to discuss transgender people, stop the State Department from allowing transgender people to obtain passports with correct gender markers, change the references to LGBTQ on government websites – including the Stonewall Monument website – to remove the T and Q, ban trans girls and women from participating in sports, direct trans people in prison be denied correct housing and withheld necessary healthcare, and stop trans people from accessing homeless shelters.

By the end of her enumeration, she had half the attendees at the hearing in tears, including me. The pronouncement of facts, antithetical to a political landscape anchored in disinformation and cognitive dissonance, was profoundly moving and validating. In that moment it was hard to not think about all trans and nonbinary people who I love and how they have been harmed.

As a matter of record, it will forever be recorded that upon judicial review, someone with power voiced the totality of the systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions and mirrored it back to the world and our courageous plaintiffs who sat quietly in the court room.

Those brave service members who bore witness to a hearing where people weighed their humanity, minimized the harm of presidential decrees, and debated their rights left the court room with their heads held high. I think that is because they are clear about who they are and the role they play in protecting a country they love, even when that country is not protecting them back. Nicolas Talbott, one of our plaintiffs, said leaving the court room on Tuesday, “The fact that I am transgender has no bearing on my dedication to the mission, my commitment to my unit, or my ability to perform my duties in accordance with the high standards expected of me. Every individual must meet the same objective and rigorous qualifications to serve. When you put on the uniform, differences fall away, and what matters is your ability to do the job.”

Hear, hear, Second Lieutenant Talbott, hear, hear.

Four recent wins:

On February 20, the Vermont House unanimously passed, with bipartisan support, a bill that will streamline the process for LGBTQ+ parents to confirm their legal relationship to their children. The bill now moves to the state Senate.
On February 12, a federal judge granted our request to expand our case on behalf of New Hampshire transgender high school students Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle to challenge President Trump’s executive orders banning transgender girls from participating in school sports.

On Tuesday February 19, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in our case representing three incarcerated transgender women at risk of being transferred to a men’s facility and having their necessary medical care stopped. This blocks the Bureau of Prisons from enforcing against our clients President Trump’s first Executive Order attempting to deny the existence of transgender people, while our case against it continues. We are moving to protect as many of the transgender women in the women’s facilities as we can, and are adding anyone we hear from in the same circumstances.

Also on February 19, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Massachusetts public school’s policy supporting transgender students. GLAD Law submitted a friend-of-the-court brief with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents describing how a positive school climate is crucial to educational success for all students.

What to know, what to do:

Read this ABC News coverage of the hearing on a Preliminary Injunction in Talbott v. Trump.
Watch plaintiff Nicolas Talbot’s interview segment on Fox News Digital (yes, you read that right).
Check out this page tracking GLAD Law’s challenges to Executive Orders, as well as challenges from other movement organizations.
Sign up to receive updates on GLAD Law’s work for LGBTQ+ justice.

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GLAD Law, with ACLU of NH, is currently challenging the New Hampshire state law banning transgender girls from participation. The federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of that law against our plaintiffs, two transgender high school students, while the litigation continues. Last week amended our case to include a challenge to the Executive Order.

GLAD Law Senior Director of Litigation Ben Klein made the following comment on the NHIAA announcement:

“This is an unfortunate reversal of what had been a well-working NHIAA policy that allowed transgender girls to participate on school teams with their peers. It’s important to note, however, that the NHIAA has not prohibited schools from allowing transgender girls to play sports. They have essentially decided to have no policy in light of the chaos and confusion caused by the executive order and are looking to the Court to address the issue. It’s further evidence of why we need the Court to weigh in so that transgender students are not denied the educational benefits that come from the opportunity to play school sports.”

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The Resistance Brief: This week in the fight for justice

Why the courts still matter

Blog by Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Executive Director

I know we are all feeling the weight of the strain that our democracy is currently under. In these moments, I try to remember what I learned about our government’s system of checks and balances. Our three-branch government is supposed to divide power amongst each part to prevent tyranny.

And while the current administration may have gone into an Executive Order-issuing frenzy causing confusion, panic, and disorder, there remain built-in limits to what the president can do through executive action alone. This is certainly the case when politics are working business as usual. JD Vance’s most recent comments about the courts not being able to tell the executive branch what to do signal a concerning willingness to defy judicial review. But the courts must remain a backstop against unconstitutional actions. And we, the people, have a role to play in ensuring the courts exercise their rightful role – and enforce executive compliance. It is paramount we do not succumb to apathy; lives are at stake.

Court decisions can impact our everyday lives. In the case of Maria Moe, an incarcerated transgender woman and client of GLAD Law, it was court intervention that prevented her from facing the imminent danger that would have come from being moved to a men’s facility and having her necessary medical care taken away.

Court decisions can delay the implementation of discriminatory laws that pass at the state or federal level. In the case of Parker Tirrell, a district court judge blocked the enforcement of a recently passed New Hampshire state law, HB 1205, which prevented Parker from playing soccer with her friends. Earlier this week, GLAD Law and our partners at ACLU of New Hampshire expanded our case to include a legal challenge to President Trump’s executive orders that ban transgender girls and women from sports nationwide.

Using the courts to delay dangerous policies is harm-reduction. It’s also strategically advantageous – it buys us time to allow the community to develop contingency plans and mutual aid networks, allows us and other advocacy organizations to educate targeted communities about their rights, and provides more time for state-level protections to be enacted where possible. And it can allow time for the democratic process, and those charged with safeguarding it, to reassert a commitment to civil rights.

Ultimately, courts can stop unconstitutional policies and reaffirm that equal protection applies to everyone, without exception.

This doesn’t mean that the courts are our only avenue for resistance. It is critical for advocacy organizations and individuals to use every channel we have to disrupt and reject the abject treatment of fellow Americans we are experiencing under this presidency – whether it be through acts of peaceful protest, calls to elected representatives, or engaging in the deeply important local battles being fought in towns big and small throughout this country.

It’s going to take uncommon courage: faith leaders asking the President to show mercy for those in harm’s way, women in STEM preserving their stories and achievements, a Super Bowl halftime show strategically agitating the masses. We need outspoken lawmakers stepping outside of their calculus for reelection and leaning into values of equality and justice, and more unapologetic corporate tenacity the likes of Costco.

If we are going to protect our civil rights and democracy, and turn away from tyranny, we need the courts, and we need all of us. We must swing big; it’s the only way to shift our collective consciousness.

What to know, what to do:

Learn about and track GLAD Law’s challenges to Executive Orders.
Follow all current legal challenges to early actions of the Trump administration.
Read this Boston Globe profile of New Hampshire plaintiffs Parker and Iris as they bring their courageous fight for equal access to school sports onto the national stage.
Access our list of resources for LGBTQ+ People Under the Trump Administration.
Sign up to receive updates on GLAD Law’s challenges to Trump’s Executive Orders and other important work for LGBTQ+ rights.

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Students and Families Move to Challenge Trump Executive Order Banning Transgender Sports Participation

GLAD Law and ACLU of NH ask court to expand existing NH case to challenge President Trump’s executive orders banning transgender girls from participating in school sports

Today, the organizations representing the families of New Hampshire students challenging a state law that categorically bans transgender girls from participating in school sports asked the court to expand their case to include a legal challenge to President Trump’s executive orders that ban transgender girls and women from sports nationwide.

“The Trump Administration’s executive orders amount to a coordinated campaign to prevent transgender people from functioning in society. The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support and essential opportunities during their most vulnerable years, is especially cruel,” said Chris Erchull, Senior Staff Attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), which is representing the plaintiffs along with the ACLU of New Hampshire (ACLU of NH). “School sports are an important part of education—something no child should be denied simply because of who they are. Our clients Parker and Iris simply want to go to school, learn, and play on teams with their peers.”

GLAD Law and the ACLU of NH filed the motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire in the case Tirrell and Turmelle v. Edelblut, a federal lawsuit challenging HB 1205, a 2024 state law banning all transgender girls in grades 5-12 from participating in school sports in New Hampshire public schools. Last September, the court ordered that students Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle be allowed to play sports during the litigation, ruling that HB 1205 discriminates against transgender students in violation of Title IX and the U.S. Constitution.

“We’re expanding our lawsuit to challenge President Trump’s executive orders because, like the state law, it excludes, singles out, and discriminates against transgender students and insinuates that they are not deserving of the same educational opportunities as all other students. Every child in New Hampshire and across the country has a right to equal opportunities at school and all students do better when they have access to resources that improve their mental, emotional, and physical health,” said Henry Klementowicz, Deputy Legal Director at ACLU of NH.

In asking the court to add federal defendants to the lawsuit to formally challenge the Trump administration’s executive orders to ban transgender female athletes, GLAD Law and ACLU of NH contend that the Trump administration’s February 5 executive order, along with parts of a January 20 executive order, subject Parker and Iris to discrimination in violation of federal equal protection guarantees and their rights under Title IX. The organizations also assert the orders unlawfully subject the girls’ respective schools to the threat of losing federal funding for allowing Parker and Iris to play school sports.

Parker Tirrell is a tenth-grader who plays on her high school soccer team. Iris Turmelle is a ninth-grader who is looking forward to trying out for tennis this spring.

“I love playing soccer and we had a great season last fall. I just want to go to school like other kids and keep playing the game I love,” said Parker Tirrell.

“We were so grateful and proud to watch Parker play soccer with her friends last fall, and to see the joy it brings her. Her father and I just want her to be happy, healthy, and know she belongs—the same things any parent wants for their child. It’s just not right for the federal government to come down so hard on a kid,” said Sara Tirrell, Parker’s mother.

“The chance to try out for tennis means new teammates, new friends, and a sense of fun and belonging. I just want the same opportunities as other girls at my school,” said Iris Turmelle.

“It’s heartbreaking to have the federal government so aggressively go after our daughter,” said Amy Manzelli and Chad Turmelle, Iris’s parents. “Iris is looking forward to playing spring sports and being part of a team. We just want her to be able to attend school and get the most out of her education—on and off the court.”

President Trump’s February 5 executive order banning transgender girls and women from athletics is the latest in a series of executive orders and related policy changes deliberately aimed at broadly restricting the rights of transgender Americans in public life. Since taking office Jan. 20, his administration has worked to roll back access to non-discrimination protections, health care, equal educational opportunities, military service, and vital identity documents for transgender people.

Parker, Iris, and their families are represented by Chris Erchull, Ben Klein, Michael Haley, and Jennifer Levi at GLAD Law, Henry Klementowicz and Gilles Bissonnette at the ACLU of NH, and Louis Lobel, Kevin DeJong, and Elaine Blais at Goodwin.

Today’s filing comprises of three documents:

Find additional filings and more information about the case.

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From the Front Lines: The Fight for Transgender Rights Is a Fight for Democracy

Blog by Jennifer Levi, Senior Director of Queer and Transgender Rights

Jennifer Levi

With a (tiny) bit of distance from the gloom of my D.C. visit, I have had time to reflect on an intense week of being in and out (and in) Court. Here is what I’ve got. It’s a work in progress as we all take in the enormity of what we are facing. While I remain laser-focused on my area of expertise – defending transgender rights – I’m acutely aware that many other communities are under similar attack. My fervent prayer is that there are fierce and tireless advocates in those trenches too. My lane is and has been transgender advocacy. Here are some reflections from my foxhole.

The systematic targeting of transgender Americans represents far more than isolated acts of discrimination. Last week, during our hearing seeking emergency relief from the military ban, the judge cut through the government’s pretense. She asked the government’s lawyer how she could possibly defend, as rational, a policy that literally declares that being transgender violates the values of honor, truthfulness, discipline, selflessness and humility – even though transgender service members must meet the exact same rigorous standards as their peers.

And then she went further, asking the government to reconcile this blatantly incoherent stance with the administration’s sweeping attacks on transgender people – far beyond the military and in so many disparate contexts. While our side will certainly argue that all these actions reveal the same underlying animus, what struck me most was the judge’s chilling, methodical listing of what this administration has done in less than two weeks.

It wasn’t my list—it was hers, and what you read here draws from the actual court transcript. I share this list for two reasons: first, to show the breathtaking scope of attacks on transgender Americans, and second, to reveal how targeting this vulnerable minority is being used to systematically undermine core American institutions, paving the way for authoritarian control.

The administration has:

Rescinded all existing federal policies protecting transgender people from sex and disability discrimination
Revoked the ability to obtain passports and federal documents reflecting gender identity
Removed State Department safety information for transgender travelers
Changed “LGBT” to “LGB” across federal websites
Deleted CDC public health research and guidance about transgender people
Denied transition-related healthcare to federal employees
Announced plans to cut federal funding from organizations that serve or recognize transgender people
Moved to revoke equal access protections in homeless shelters
Directed federal prisons to deny medical treatment and house transgender people by birth sex
Ordered law enforcement to prosecute school officials who recognize transgender students

Each of these actions alone is disconcerting. Together, they reveal a calculated strategy to push institutional boundaries and normalize exclusion.

This playbook is dangerously effective:

Target a small, vulnerable group most Americans don’t know personally
Use them to test institutional boundaries
Create chaos in core institutions (military, healthcare, prisons, schools)
Establish precedents for broader rights restrictions
Normalize the weaponization of federal agencies against minorities
Stun and intimidate people into fear and silence

This is how democracy erodes – not all at once (though this feels like all at once, right about now), but by first establishing that vulnerable minority groups can be systematically stripped of rights and protections.

But we are not powerless. State and local institutions—our schools, healthcare systems, and civil rights enforcement agencies—must resist federal pressure, and we must stand with them in that fight. In progressive states especially, we must work with our local leaders—pushing them to take meaningful action and providing the public support they need to resist federal pressure.

There is time to stop this erosion of democracy, but only if we call out these attacks for what they are—test cases for authoritarian control—and build (and rebuild) solidarity across communities to resist the politics of division.

So grateful to be in this struggle with all of you! And seriously grateful for all the ways everyone across GLAD Law has supported the community as best we can over these challenging three (3!) weeks.

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From the Front Lines: Fighting for Transgender Rights in a Critical Moment

Blog by Jennifer Levi, Senior Director of Queer and Transgender Rights

Jennifer Levi

I’m writing this from a hotel room in DC, looking across the green to the Capitol, after one of the most intense weeks of my 30-year legal career. The pace and scope of what we’re facing is unprecedented, but GLAD Law is doing what we’ve always done: standing firm, acting swiftly, and fighting strategically for justice.

This past Monday, I caught a late flight to DC for an emergency hearing Tuesday morning. We were defending transgender women who had been suddenly removed from their general population housing in women’s prisons, placed in special housing units (SHU), and faced imminent transfer to men’s facilities. They were also at risk of having their essential medical care terminated.

While still in that hearing, I was called to chambers for another emergency matter – this one involving our challenge to the military ban. We had just over two hours to prepare. When we first filed our challenge, we thought there might be a brief window before the ban went into effect. That changed within hours, when we learned of a transgender woman pulled from basic training and pressured to sign a document denying who she is. When she couldn’t sign the form, she was removed from her barracks and placed in an isolated room with a single cot away from her peers. In the emergency hearing, when the government couldn’t assure the Court they would stop restricting her training, we knew we had to act fast.

By late yesterday evening, after intense legal wrangling, we secured a crucial ruling protecting our plaintiffs from any changes to their conditions of service. It’s an important victory, but just one battle in what we know will be a long campaign.

What we’re facing now is different from previous challenges to transgender rights. This isn’t just about specific policies or programs – it’s a coordinated effort to prevent transgender people from functioning in society at all. After decades during which transgender Americans have built lives, served their country, and contributed to their communities under the protection of civil rights laws, we’re seeing systematic attempts to shut us out of public life entirely.

I’ve been doing this work for 30 years, and I stand on the shoulders of giants – Mary Bonauto, Ben Klein, Gary Buseck, and our founder John Ward, among others. GLAD Law has always been courageous, nimble, strategic, and bold. That’s exactly what this moment demands.

These early court victories are crucial – they give us time to build stronger protections and help the American public understand what’s really at stake. Because this isn’t just about transgender rights. It’s about whether we will remain a nation governed by law rather than arbitrary power.

Looking out my window at the Capitol, I won’t pretend I’m not distressed by what I see. I do question our future. But I remain absolutely resolute in doing this work, as does everyone at GLAD Law. We’ve faced seemingly impossible odds before. We’ve prevailed because we’ve stayed focused, strategic, and unwavering in our commitment to justice.

The path ahead won’t be easy. But I know that with sustained determination and support, we can protect our communities and democracy. Thank you for standing with us in this critical moment.

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The Resistance Brief: This week in the fight for justice

Blog by Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Executive Director

As a 14-year-old kid on a field trip to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City 30 years ago, I learned about ACT UP and the importance of responding to a crisis with urgency and strategic action.

GLAD Law has taken immediate steps to challenge the Trump administration’s harrowing and unconstitutional Executive Orders targeting our community, filing three new cases in the last two weeks. We secured an order blocking enforcement of Sections 4(a) and 4(c) of Trump’s January 20 so-called “gender ideology” order. Those sections unlawfully seek to house transgender women in men’s prisons – exposing them to an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault – and to take away necessary medical care. We also filed a challenge to Trump’s transgender military ban Executive Order, which demeans and dishonors transgender servicemembers. GLAD Law attorneys were in court over multiple days this week ensuring our plaintiffs will not face separation from the military or other adverse treatment while we plan for the first full hearing in the case on February 18. Read the op-ed from Jennifer Levi and Shannon Minter, the lead attorneys on the case.

The swift, strategic steps we have taken to use the law to stop, delay, and reduce the harm of Trump’s Executive Orders have been nothing short of inspiring.

The GLAD Law team has also been working hard to provide support and guidance to our entire community during this tremendously destabilizing time. Our confidential legal helpline, GLAD Law Answers, fielded 341 intake calls in January alone. We also hosted an educational briefing about the current legal landscape for which over 1600 people registered. We will continue to provide information and guidance for our community as we navigate the weeks and months ahead.

We are experiencing a sustained campaign aimed at making it impossible for transgender people to function in society. And we know that denying basic rights to one group of people without resistance and defiant opposition puts the rights of all of us at risk. By taking quick and decisive action, we send a message that we intend to continue our legacy of protecting the rights and liberty of all LGBTQ+ people and those with HIV and that it is not permissible to tread on anyone’s rights. We, the people, will continue to defend the fundamental principle that equal protection under the law is guaranteed to all of us without exception.

At the same time, we continue the necessary work to defend against any attempt to reverse the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality decision, protect LGBTQ+ families, increase access and remove barriers to PrEP, and strengthen existing nondiscrimination laws.

Before I began my tenure as Executive Director of GLAD Law, I was familiar with our legacy, but it wasn’t until I began working with this talented team that I understood the enormous value we bring to the movement. I wish you could see the countless ways they contribute every day to making the world a better place. I’ve watched our staff go above and beyond to ensure that we not only have a chance to survive the next four years but that we are concurrently building towards a future that delivers the healing, reconciliation, prosperity and collective safety we all deserve.

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Home » National/Federal » Page 5

Trump’s Sports Order is Part of a Sustained Campaign Targeting Transgender People

President Trump signed an executive order barring transgender girls from participating in school sports.

Ricardo Martinez, Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), made the following statement:

This order banning transgender students from sports is part of a sustained campaign aimed at making it impossible for transgender people to function in society. The avalanche of executive orders issued over the last two weeks cuts across every area of life – from employment to healthcare, from travel, to social services, to schools.

The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support during their most vulnerable years, is especially cruel. These policies will have devastating consequences for years to come.

The President cannot change the law or the Constitution. We will challenge this order.