4 landmark cases that changed LGBTQ+ rights in the US

The fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States has been an ongoing battle for over 50 years.

In the new book Making the Case for Equality: 50 Years of Legal Milestones in LGBTQ History, co-authors Jennifer C. Pizer and Ellen Ann Andersen take readers through the hallmark cases of Lambda Legal, a law firm dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ rights, that have resulted in LGBTQ+ folks winning the right to marry, the right to safety in schools and the workplace, the right to privacy, and in many cases the right to exist.

Here are just a handful of the cases that made ways for LGBTQ+ folks over the last five decades:

Nabozny v. Podlesny

The 1995-96 case was the first to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ bullying in public schools.

Jamie Nabozny, a high school student in Ashland, Wisconsin, was persistently and violently bullied by fellow classmates for being gay. The bullying escalated to physical assaults that led to Jamie requiring surgery.

When school officials were brought in to address the bullying, they blamed Jamie for calling it upon himself.

“The school administrators saw him as the problem because he was gay, acting gay,” said Jennifer C. Pizer, chief legal officer and Eden-Rushing Chair for Lambda Legal. She spoke about some of the most influential cases outlined in the book on with Larry Mantle, LAist's daily radio show.

The case was brought to federal court, and it was ultimately decided that the school had violated Jamie’s right to equal protection as they failed to protect him as they would any other student.

Taylor v. Rice

In 2003, Lorenzo Taylor applied to become a Foreign Service Officer. He was denied based on his HIV status.

In the subsequent case, Lambda Legal argued that the Foreign Service was in violation of the Rehabilitation Act ,which prohibits the federal government from discriminating against people with disabilities.

The military was able to get around this violation in previous instances by arguing that soldiers with HIV could not be deployed to certain parts of the world due to limited access to HIV medication and thus could not meet the requirements of the job. But in Taylor v. Rice, the Foreign Service was unable to prove that Taylor’s HIV status would be an impediment to his service, said Pizer.

The case went to the DC Circuit and two weeks before the trial in 2008, the Foreign Service adopted new anti-discriminatory hiring guidelines.

Lawrence v. Texas

Sodomy laws continued in the U.S. up until 2003 as a means to discriminate against same-sex couples.

In the landmark case of Lawrence v. Texas, police officers entered the home of John Lawrence and Tyron Garner under a false report of illegal activity and the presence of a gun. Upon entering, officers found Lawrence and Garner together, and they were arrested under Texas’ “Homosexual Conduct” law.

“Part of our case was you can't argue that this isn't targeting gay people, it's called the Homosexual Conduct law. And that's both an unequal targeting of a group of people without a just, good justification, and also a profound intrusion on privacy,” Pizer said.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed, and sodomy laws were found unconstitutional.

Obergefell v. Hodges

“Obergefell was the case decided by the Supreme Court in 2015 that made marriage equality, the freedom to marry, the law of the land for same sex couples,” Pizer said.

In 2013, James Obergefell and John Arthur James sued the state of Ohio for refusing to recognize same-sex married couples on death certificates, even though the two had been legally married in Maryland.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that under the 14th Amendment all states were required to license same-sex marriages and that marriages licensed out of state must also be recognized.

“It's been important for couples, for parents. Partly because the legal protections that come with marriage are vast and quite important and provide a default protection system for people, but also because of the message that it conveys — that same sex couples, that lesbian, gay, bisexual people have an equal place in our society,” Pizer said.