Nonprofit LGTBQ+ Organization Raised $285M to Challenge Legislative Attacks on Queer Lives

The 51-year-old legal advocacy group, Lambda Legal, has recently exceeded its donation goal by over $100 million, raising $285 million to fight against the coordinated assault on the rights of LGBTQ+ and those living with HIV.

The Unstoppable Future initiative, launched three years ago, has surpassed its goal by more than $100 million. The campaign’s purpose is to expand their legal team by 42%. “The gift continues the momentum of the Unstoppable Future campaign, the largest campaign in the history of the LGBTQ+ equality movement, which will invest $180 million to nearly double the organization’s litigation docket capacity, engage and educate 500,000 people annually, and expand legal educational resources to support the most vulnerable populations.”

“Here’s the headline,” says Lambda Legal’s CEO, Kevin Jennings, in an interview with The Advocate. “With this campaign, the LGBTQ+ community and our allies have said to our opponents: ‘We will not go back.'” Notably, the campaign’s support is primarily made up of individual donations. Among the significant contributions are a $25 million gift from the Kathryn G. Graham Trust and a $16 million donation from MacKenzie Scott.

Not every battle is won. Lambda Legal’s campaign challenging Trump’s ban on transgender military service was not won, but the CEO, Kevin Jennings, rejects defeat, saying, “We’re not going to win every fight. We’re going to fight every fight. We’re going to win some, we’re going to lose some, but we’re going to keep fighting. We have not suffered a final defeat. We have suffered a setback.” The case now returns to the court. Jennings says that, “Lambda Legal will fight hard.” He adds, “Lambda Legal is no longer a legal organization,” he says. “Lambda Legal is in the hope business because the ultimate goal of the other side is to make us feel hopeless. That there’s nothing we can do.”

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