The Best Looks from Lambda Legal’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

Editorial
Written By Sonny Oram

Lambda Legal, the national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV, celebrated their 50th Anniversary at The Lot at Formosa in Los Angeles, Calif. and Moonlight Studios in New York on Wednesday, October 18.

Since 1973, Lambda Legal has been a pivotal in the fight against HIV discrimination, anti-gay bullying, marriage equality, social security for queer couples, identity documents for transgender people, employment discrimination, and more.

“No matter what effort has been launched to force us back into the closet or to undercut our fully lived equality – we have beaten back those efforts in the court of law.” said Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal. “Now more than ever, the LGBTQ+ community must and will stand up and fight for our rights. At Lambda Legal, we vow to keep fighting for the next 50 years to protect and advance our rights and freedoms.” 

Some landmark cases include a victory in 1983 that prevented the eviction of Dr. Joseph Sonnabend and his clinic for treating HIV-positive patients. In 1996, Lambda Legal established the rights of gay students to be protected from abuse in schools, marking a significant milestone in the fight against anti-gay bullying.

The organization’s dedicated team continues to fight anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, particularly anti-transgender policies in more than 27 states across the country challenging discrimination in healthcare, school policies and curricula, public school sports programs, access to school restrooms and other facilities, and access to accurate identity documents.

In honor of all their amazing contributions to LGBTIQIA+ rights, here are our favorite looks from the celebration! Los Angeles guests included Arisce Wanzer, Azariah Southworth, Blair Imani, Daniel Franzese, Jeff Consoletti, Moises Zamora, and Rose Montoya. New York guests included Alex Newell, Benjamin Freemantle, Daria Dee, Desmond is Amazing, Dimitri Moise, Gabe Gonzalez, Jeff Hiller, Michael Judson Berry, and Murray Hill.

Los Angeles:

 

Blair Imani

 
 
 
 
 
 

Azariah Southworth (right)

 
 
 

New York

Desmond is Amazing

 
 
 

Alex Newell

 
 

Daria Dee

 

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Sonny Oram

Sonny Oram is the founder of Qwear and a leading voice in the queer fashion movement. For over a decade, he has been documenting, writing about, and experimenting with queer fashion, amplifying the voices and stories of LGBTQIA+ individuals. His expertise has been featured in major media outlets like HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Design*Sponge, and QTYPE Magazine, and he spoke at South by Southwest for the first official queer fashion panel in 2016.

Through Qwear, Sonny has launched powerful campaigns, including the award-winning #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike with Yasmin Benoit, and continues to create spaces for underrepresented communities to be seen. He also utilizes search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to bring more diversity to online search results, ensuring that terms like “androgynous style,” “bisexual style,” and “asexual” reflect a broader range of experiences.

Sonny is also the author of the foreword for “Queer and Trans Fashion Brands: Resistance and Revolution in the 21st Century” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).

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