Lambda Legal: Making the Case for Equality

August 3, 2006
Kevin Cathcart

Civil rights activist Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal, will provide historical overview of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues that are now center stage in the national debate for marriage equality. Lambda Legal has taken a pivotal role for over 30 years in achieving full legal rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV. In addition, Lambda Legal is deeply involved with the current marriage litigation and Kevin will address the Washington State and New Jersey cases pending before their respective state supreme courts. These rulings will have immense impact throughout the country on the rights of LGBT people.

With 30 years of experience and success in fighting for the rights of LGBT people and people with HIV or AIDS in the courtrooms and communities of our nation, Lambda Legal has amassed the unique expertise and vision to continue to shape and focus the LGBT civil rights movement. Lambda Legal is one of the leading national LGBT organizations and the premiere legal advocate for the movement. With five offices throughout the country and a proven record of leveraging strategic legal victories for maximum social justice impact, Lambda Legal has the capability to take the fight for rights to the local level, while shaping the civil rights debate on the national stage.

Speaker Details

Kevin M. Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal since 1992, is a leading strategist and spokesperson in the movement to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV. Cathcart has made Lambda Legal an unparalleled national force through its far-reaching litigation and public education. Under his leadership, Lambda Legal promotes security, respect and fairness for lesbian and gay youth, families, and all people regardless of sexual orientation or HIV status.Lambda Legal’s groundbreaking work reached new heights in 2003 when it won a U.S. Supreme Court victory striking down Texas’s “Homosexual Conduct” law and every law like it in the nation. Lambda Legal was lead counsel in the case, representing two men who were arrested in Houston while having consensual sex at home. The landmark ruling will impact all areas of LGBT people’s lives, and Cathcart has mapped out a wide-ranging strategy for Lambda Legal to turn its historic court victory into a reality in people’s everyday lives.Other unique programs begun during Cathcart’s tenure include Lambda Legal’s Foster Care Initiative to improve care of lesbian and gay youth in foster care, whose needs go largely unmet throughout the country. With its Marriage Project, Lambda Legal plays a leading role in a national coalition working to win the freedom to marry. Among its many other legal cases and policy efforts, Lambda Legal is litigating a lawsuit in New Jersey seeking full marriage rights for same-sex couples. Lambda Legal continues playing a leadership role in fighting for equal treatment for same-sex partners of gay men and lesbians who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.Cathcart has fostered dramatic growth in the organization as well as in the scope of its work. He oversaw the opening of Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago in 1993 and Southern Regional Office in Atlanta in 1997. In 2002, Lambda Legal opened a South Central Regional Office in Dallas. From its regional offices, including the Western Regional Office in Los Angeles and from its New York Headquarters, Lambda Legal responds to requests for help and information from thousands of individuals facing discrimination each year. Since Cathcart took Lambda Legal’s helm, the staff has more than tripled and the organization’s budget has grown to just over $8 million.A longtime leader in the lesbian and gay community, Cathcart served from 1984 to 1992 as executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in Boston, New England’s lesbian, gay, and AIDS legal organization. Prior to GLAD, Cathcart was a staff attorney at the North Shore Children’s Law Project. He has served on the boards of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Community Works (the nation’s fourth-largest social action fund), and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Cathcart graduated from Richard Stockton State College (New Jersey) in 1976 and the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1978. He received his J.D. from Northeastern School of Law in 1982.