Victory! Lambda Legal Secures Social Security Survivor's Benefits for Same-Sex Partners

In 2021, Lamba Legal won a lawsuit ensuring that surviving same-sex spouses and partners would be entitled to the same social security benefits as opposite-sex couples.

“Today, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Social Security Administration (SSA) dismissed their Ninth Circuit appeals of two nationwide class actions won by Lambda Legal in favor of surviving same-sex spouses and partners denied equal access to social security survivor’s benefits…This is a historic development with immense implications: survivor’s benefits are now equally available to everyone, including potentially thousands of same-sex partners who could not marry their loved ones and may have thought it was futile to apply.”