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American Bar Association honors lawyers involved in fight for same-sex marriage
Lawyers who were involved in helping to bring the fight for same-sex marriage to the Supreme Court are among those to be honored by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
The Commission will be recognizing each with a Stonewall Award, to be presented at a ceremony in February 2016.
The ABA’s Stonewall Awards recognize lawyers who have ‘considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes.’
They are named after the Stonewall Inn and the associated riots of 1969 – the event that sparked the modern day LGBT-rights movement.
The three recipients of awards are: Evan Wolfson, Abby Rubenfeld and Tom Fitzpatrick.
Wolfson is the founder of Freedom To Marry and previous to that, marriage project director with Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund.
Of his many career achievements, Evan has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, and is the author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People’s Right to Marry.
‘If there were a Nobel Prize for LGBT advocacy, Evan Wolfson would surely be its first recipient,’ said Mark Johnson Roberts, chair of the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, in a statement announcing the award. ‘His vision and tenacity are largely responsible for the realization of marriage equality in America.’
Speaking to Gay Star Business, Wolfson said: ‘It means a lot to be recognized by the American Bar Association alongside other friends and colleagues.
‘I believe in the law as an engine of change and a foundation of freedom, and am pleased that the ABA is honoring the work we have done together to hold the country to its promise. As lawyers, we know that the Constitution is not self-executing and that change doesn’t happen through law courts alone, but, rather, by engaging hearts and making the case in the court of public opinion.’
Abby Rubenfeld filed the Tennessee lawsuit in 2013 that led the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage in June, has been an attorney and legal director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, serves on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, and has worked with many other advocacy groups.
‘Abby Rubenfeld is the unofficial dean of the national LGBT family law bar,’ said Johnson Roberts. ‘Her contributions to the legal protection of LGBT families are without parallel.’
Speaking to Gay Star Business, Rubenfeld said, ‘I am thrilled to receive this incredible honor from the American Bar Association, an organization with which I have been involved since the early 1980s. It is particularly rewarding given the history – when I got involved with the ABA, it did not even have a non-discrimination policy adopted by the house of delegates, and now, 35 years later, it has become an extremely LGBT supportive organization with numerous policies supporting equality for all and one that files amicus briefs in all major LGBT cases.’
The final recipient will be Tom Fitzpatrick, first openly gay person to be elected to the ABA Board of Governors.
‘Tom Fitzpatrick has been a powerful voice for LGBT inclusion within the Association from the earliest days of our movement. He literally helped change the LGBT policies of the Association to what they are today,’ said Johnson Roberts.
Fitzpatrick has worked to make the ABA a more inclusive and supportive place for LGBT people, including working to expand the association’s diversity goal to include sexual orientation and gender identity and to create the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
‘I think when the history of the gay rights movement is written, one of the most significant things will be the change in culture in the legal profession on LGBT issues. I was happy to contribute to that, and am honored the award recognizes that,’ Fitzpatrick said.
The post American Bar Association honors lawyers involved in fight for same-sex marriage appeared first on Gay Star News.
David Hudson
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