Lambda Legal Aids In Lawsuit Against Trump Administration

Lambda Legal is suing Trump over his anti-DEIA policies and orders. Again. Previously, in 2020, Lambda Legal sued his administration for trying to block federal contractors from conducting workplace diversity training in The Diversity Center V. Trump, which they won. This time, Lambda is representing nine LGBTQ+ health and HIV organizations who are filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration for their three executive orders that target diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs and trans people. They are arguing that these orders have harmed their abilities to serve marginalized communities.

The organizations suing include San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Prisma Community Care in Arizona, and NYC LGBT Community Center. They are represented by Lambda Legal, a legal defense organization that represents underserved and marginalized communities on a variety of fronts like trans and non-binary rights, immigration, and police misconduct to name a few.

Prisma Community Care, a nonprofit organization that provides primary care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, reproductive health care, and free HIV testing, briefly considered closing after their federal funding was frozen in January. They have also had to lay off employees and cut the salaries of others according to CEO Jessyca Leach. The organization also received a notice from the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) telling them that the Trump administration would continue to cause problems and setbacks in terms of funding even after the funding freeze was reversed. Leach says, “By trying to take organizations like mine down with these executive orders, you are not just taking us down; you are taking down a large swath of the population.”

The director of Lambda Legal’s HIV project says in an interview, “A lot of the services they provide are required by the government to target services to minority populations—specifically Black, Indigenous people of color, Asian communities, transgender communities—because these funds recognize, based on empirical data, that these populations need targeted services.” It is clear who the Trump administration created the orders that target trans communities and “equity-related” programs and grants for. Similar to how the alt-right will use the word “woke” to describe anything not ascribing to white supremacy, they equate DEIA with the same groups that are a threat to white supremacy. Good on these organizations for taking action against this administration. It is nice to see them further standing up for and supporting the people they have committed to serve.