Impact Fund uses the Courts to Fight For LGBTQ+ Rights.
We fund large-scale civil rights lawsuits that hold corporations accountable, challenge discriminatory government practices, and repair the damage they cause.
aN eXAMPLE OF oUR wORK:
In summer 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) demanded the medical records of more than 3,000 transgender youth treated at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, including mental health notes and prescription details.
We went to court with Lawyers for Good Government and Western Center on Law & Poverty on behalf of patients and their families, arguing the demand violated their constitutional right to privacy.
In January 2026, the government backed down. Under the settlement:
DOJ withdrew its demand for the records of all 3,000+ patients
All the patients and families who sued stayed anonymous.
Learn more about this case.
Beyond LGBTQ+ justice, we fund cases that protect immigrants, public benefits, healthcare, education, the environment, civil rights, and more. We also litigate our own cases and train attorneys to better serve their communities.
Under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the policies before it, the military forced more than 30,000 service members out of the military for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Many were stripped of an Honorable discharge, which cut them off from benefits they earned. Even those who still qualified had to out themselves every time they applied for help, handing over papers that named their sexual orientation as the reason they were kicked out. Decades later, they were still reliving the day their country told them they didn’t belong.
“I felt that my country was telling me that my service was not valuable, that I was ‘less than’ because of who I loved.” Sherrill Farrell, U.S. Navy veteran
Long after the policy ended, veterans still faced a slow, confusing, and often retraumatizing process to fix their records.
We sued the Department of Defense on behalf of all 30,000 veterans, with Legal Aid at Work, King & Spalding, and Haynes and Boone.
In 2024, we won in court. Veterans can now:
Apply for the benefits they earned without handing over papers that outed them,
Erase the code that said they could never serve again, and
Receive the Honorable discharge they always deserved, along with the healthcare and other benefits that come with it.
