Kevin Jennings and Shelly Skeen
Evening will honor Lee Taft and Lauren Mutti
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Lambda Legal’s upcoming Landmark dinner will honor community leaders Lee Taft and Lauren Mutti, both of whom have played vital roles in the organization’s history.
Taft was the first executive director of Lambda Legal’s Southwest Region office based in Dallas and was part of the legal team litigating the landmark lawsuit Lawrence v. Texas.
That case began in 1998 when John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested in Lawrence’s home in Houston for violating Texas’ “homosexual conduct” law — Section 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code. Lambda Legal argued the Houston case from local court all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2003, a majority of Supreme Court justices agreed that sodomy laws violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Prior to that ruling, Taft traveled to neighboring states to speak about why laws similar to the Texas law should be found unconstitutional. His strategy was to make it easier for the court to hand down a ruling favorable to the LGBTQ community. Among his successes was a surprisingly positive editorial in Tulsa World, Oklahoma’s second largest and very conservative newspaper.
Taft served on the boards of the Texas Human Rights Foundation, AIDS Interfaith Network and the Jesuit Social Research Institute in addition to being on the board of Lambda Legal.
Mutti is an attorney for Dr Pepper Keurig Inc. She’s served on the board of Lambda Legal for six years and is a former national board chair.
“She helped us weather the pandemic,” said Lambda Legal South Central Regional Director Shelly Skeen. “And she paved the way for the largest fundraising campaign in Lambda Legal history.”
Mutti is a mom of three and a fierce advocate for Lambda Legal.
Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings is scheduled to speak at the dinner. His work in the LGBTQ community began in 1988 when he helped students found the first gay-straight alliance. That led him to create and lead the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, better known as GLSEN. He served as assistant secretary of education under President Barack Obama and is the author of seven books.
Jennings will speak about the state of civil rights for the LGBTQ community and for people living with HIV.
Skeen will speak about how the rights Lambda Legal wins in court for the LGBTQ community benefit everyone. “There’s been an attack on our voting rights, on our bodies and what decisions we get to make,” she said. “We don’t need the government telling us how to do that.”
Looking to the organization’s future, Skeen said, “We just launched the largest fundraising campaign in our history. We are going to increase the number of cases we handle.”
The goal is to hire 40 percent more attorneys to handle 80 percent more cases, “because of the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation over the last three years.”
Skeen said the community has to prepare for the future and win new civil rights and ensure equality. Over the last few years, states around the country have focused their attacks on transgender and nonbinary people, threatening their healthcare and taking away the right to correct their identity documents.
Queer Justice, an exhibit tracing the 50-year history of Lambda Legal, has been on display at Resource Center and is open to view through this weekend.
The narrative begins 50 years ago when Lambda Legal became its own first client after a panel of judges in New York ruled against the organization gaining nonprofit status because its mission was neither benevolent nor charitable. From there, they went on to win landmark cases like Lawrence and participated in the defeat of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, The Defense of Marriage Act and establishment of marriage equality.
Skeen said they’ll be packing the exhibit up on Monday, Oct. 7, to send to its next destination.