a lot of organizations in this country picked up the word lam bda, which is a letter in the greek al capone, having to do with signifying change. i am excellent not all that good on understanding greek, so i'm not 100% clear on how it became the word. but it became a common code word. so there were lots of organizations, democratic clubs book stare club -- bookstore clubs, a lot of organizations that gay people in the know would know if that something was named lambda, it would be a lgbt organization. but when lambda legal was founded in new york state in -- or attempted to be founded in 1972, the state actually denied us nonprofit status. and there was a ruling quickly overturned, but the initial ruling said that the organization served no valid charitable purpose, even though our bylaws are very closely followed by bylaws of other legal defense and education organizations that have been founded in prior years. so there was a lot of discrimination. it is kind of hard to -- almost hard to comprehend what it was like in the early 1970's compared to today. there is still discrimination

a lot of organizations in this country picked up the word lam bda, which is a letter in the greek al capone, having to do with signifying change. i am excellent not all that good on understanding greek, so i'm not 100% clear on how it became the word. but it became a common code word. so there were lots of organizations, democratic clubs book stare club -- bookstore clubs, a lot of organizations that gay people in the know would know if that something was named lambda, it would be a lgbt organization. but when lambda legal was founded in new york state in -- or attempted to be founded in 1972, the state actually denied us nonprofit status. and there was a ruling quickly overturned, but the initial ruling said that the organization served no valid charitable purpose, even though our bylaws are very closely followed by bylaws of other legal defense and education organizations that have been founded in prior years. so there was a lot of discrimination. it is kind of hard to -- almost hard to comprehend what it was like in the early 1970's compared to today. there is still discrimination