On April 9, Lambda Legal held a small event focused on reaching out to the BIPOC community while making a progress report on pending federal cases against the LGBTQ+ community by the Trump Administration.
The event, titled Evening Tea, was held at Nobody’s Darling, 1744 W. Balmoral Ave., and featured speakers from the local and national chapters of Lambda Legal, all with a call to take action.
Lambda Legal Midwest Regional Director Douglas Curtis spoke on the current administration’s efforts to erase the existence of the trans community while setting civil rights backwards.
Curtis said, “We’re in the fight of our lives.”
Activist and CEO of E3 Radio Anna DeShawn said, “Family are people that you love but may not like. But when someone goes after your family, then you show up. Right now there is so much about politics that people don’t understand…but they are feeling it.”
Lambda Legal Board Member Richard Wester spoke about the document the Trump administration seemed to be using as its playbook, Project 2025, and some of the president’s appointees carrying out its prescriptions.
Wester said, “Let me give you just a taste of who these people are. Russell Vought, Trump’s pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget—he believes our government is ‘costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt.’ He also believes our tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working Americans.
“Clearly by ‘radical’ he means federal webpages that provide information on HIV—vanished. Staffers at the United States Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS and Policy—gone. And SAGE, which aims to improve the lives of older LGBTQ+ people has had federal funding cut or halted.”
Wester also spoke about Trump’s appointee for the Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro.
“And as all of you know this madness is designed to take this country 400 years backwards and has fallen hard on our LGBTQ+ community,” Wester said. “But guess what Lambda Legal’s response is? See you in court.”
Wester finished with a recap of Lambda Legal’s accomplishments so far this year. These include a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict health care for trans youth, the presentation of oral arguments to block efforts to ban diversity programs, and a victory in obtaining a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the administration’s efforts to ban military service by trans people.
Lambda Legal Attorney Nathan Maxwell spoke about a number of ongoing cases that Lambda Legal is involved in at present. These include challenges to: Donald Trump’s executive orders banning trans individuals from serving in the military, restrictions on access to gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 13, and restrictions on federal funding for organizations that support trans rights, DEI, and accessibility programs.
Maxwell said, “The tree of hate is growing from a single seed by white, straight, cis-male, able-bodied men who hate anyone different.”
He also said, “I am a pessimistic, cynical introvert…but also a realist. The reality is that we are right and we will win.”
image source from：https://windycitytimes.com/2025/04/11/lambda-legal-serves-evening-tea-at-chicago-event/
