On May 10, Lambda Legal’s Bon Foster celebration highlighted legal victories for the LGBTQ+ community—while looking ahead toward legal challenges in the coming year—for community members who’d come out to support the organization.
The event, held at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Rubloff Auditorium, also featured a cocktail reception in the Pritzker Garden, with live music provided by the jazz group the Sun Ensemble. DJ Rae Chardonnay and drag performer Lili Towers also appeared.
This year’s event spotlighted Puck Carlson, a high school-age plaintiff in an ongoing court case in Iowa that threatens to ban books on LGBTQ+ content and erase any recognition of LGBTQ+ people from public schools. Other speakers included Deputy Director of Litigation Camilla Taylor, Midwest Regional Director Doug F. Curtis, and CEO Kevin Jennings.
Following the reception, the audience was greeted by the new 2024 co-chairs, Terrence Chappell and partner Dan Nisbet, Diane Bell and Michael Mock.
Director Taylor spoke about the late Cook County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Logue. Taylor pointed out that, though Logue was a “quiet worker,” she was a fierce champion for LGBTQ+ civil rights, winning many cases that had a national impact from the beginning of Lambda Legal’s Illinois launch in 1993.
Curtis introduced Carlson that evening with a reminder: “The forces that will undo our progress are out there, and they are well funded.”
Carlson spoke about watching their younger sister grow up trans, as well as the difficulty and confusion stoked by Senate File 496, a sweeping law threatening to silence LGBTQ+ students, erase any recognition of LGBTQ+ people from public schools and ban books with sexual LGBTQ+ content. The law also requires teachers, school psychologists, and other staff to report students to their parents and guardians if a student asks to be referred to by names or pronouns that seemingly don’t correspond with their gender identity assigned at birth.
Lambda Legal, ACLU of Iowa, and the Jenner and Block law firm last year filed a lawsuit in federal court to block provision of the law on behalf of the advocacy Iowa Safe Schools and seven high school students, with Carlson among them.
The fallout from SF 496 has not been the only legal peril facing transgender Iowans. In February, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a bill that would note on state identification documents if a resident’s stated gender identity is different from their gender identity at birth. Advocates there said that the proposal amounts to “LGBTQ+ erasure.”
Jennings closed the May 10 program with statistics comparing statewide anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have been introduced versus lawyers needed to challenge the cases nationwide.
“We need more money to hire more lawyers…and we need to make room for younger fighters,” he said. Jennings further quoted Coretta Scott King: “Freedom is never really won…you earn it and win it in every generation.”