At Stonewall Awards event, ABA leaders recommit to diversity efforts

  • by Cynthia Laird, News Editor
  • Monday February 3, 2025
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Attorney Kristen Galles, left, joined fellow Stonewall Award recipients Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge D. Zeke Zeidler at an American Bar Association reception in Phoenix on February 1. Photo: Cynthia Laird
Attorney Kristen Galles, left, joined fellow Stonewall Award recipients Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge D. Zeke Zeidler at an American Bar Association reception in Phoenix on February 1. Photo: Cynthia Laird

Leaders of the American Bar Association told LGBTQ attorneys and others that they will not retreat from diversity efforts at the national legal organization. The comments came in Phoenix February 1 where the association was having its mid-winter meeting and presented its prestigious Stonewall Award to three LGBTQ people.

"Today, when attacks on DEI are front and center, the gathering for the Stonewall Awards underscores the ABA's commitment to diversity," said William "Bill" Bay, the ABA's outgoing president, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that the Trump White House is quickly eliminating in the federal government. "We are not retreating ... and celebrate diversity in all its forms. You can count on the ABA to be a strong voice in support of the LGBTQ community."

The ABA's Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, or SOGI, oversees the organization's Stonewall Awards, which have been given annually for the past 13 years. The award is named after the famous riots in June 1969 in New York City where LGBTQ people stood up to police raiding the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. The riots are widely considered to be the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

This year's 14th annual presentation saw awards presented to lesbian attorney Kristen Galles; Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, a transgender woman; and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge D. Zeke Zeidler, a gay man.

Michelle Behnke, a Black woman who is president-elect of the ABA, echoed Bay's remarks when she spoke to attendees at the reception for the Stonewall Award recipients, held at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

"We're not going back," said Behnke, who will assume the ABA presidency in August. "As DEI becomes a political football, the ABA will continue to fight for all LGBTQ people."

She thanked the SOGI Commission and told the audience that its presence "shows allyship."

Awardees

Alpha Brady, a Black woman who is executive director of the ABA, also spoke.

"It's appropriate that Stonewall is one of the cornerstones of the midyear meeting. It's about leaders' fight for equality. I'm inspired by your contributions. It reminds us that progress is possible," Brady said. "Congratulations to our honorees."

Nathan Bruemmer, a trans man who is an ABA SOGI commissioner, introduced the three award recipients. Bruemmer, who is an attorney in St. Petersburg, Florida, described the current national environment as a "time of crisis."

"The rule of law has been disparaged by partisan loyalty ... above democracy," he said.

Galles has represented students in Title IX equal protection or gender equity and sexual harassment cases against school and state athletic associations since 1996. She has litigated and supported groundbreaking cases and efforts for equity throughout her career. From influencing Title IX case precedent to arguing or writing briefs on Title IX, Galles is now a mentor for other lawyers on their Title IX cases.

She has also served in various roles in the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice and the Labor and Employment, Litigation and Business Law sections.

During her remarks, Galles thanked members of the SOGI commission.

"I was a little bit surprised when I got the call," she said.

She discussed the importance of her work on Title IX and in the civil rights and social justice section and noted she was proud to serve as a mentor to other lawyers on their Title IX cases. (Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government; the Trump administration announced Friday that it had ended the Biden administration rules that extended Title IX protections to students on the basis of gender identity, as the Bay Area Reporter reported Friday.)

Galles co-wrote the ABA's Supreme Court amicus brief in Jackson v. Birmingham, Alabama Board of Education and wrote the ABA's official commentary on the final report issued by the U.S. Department of Education's 2002-2003 Title IX Commission, as the B.A.R. previously noted.

Kolakowski, who is married to B.A.R. news editor Cynthia Laird, was elected to the Alameda County bench in 2010 and currently handles civil cases. During her remarks, she recalled past discrimination she experienced as a trans woman, including that after graduating from law school at Louisiana State University she was not allowed to take the bar exam because of her gender identity. (She appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court and won, then passed the bar exam.)

"I never gave up and never tried to hide who I was," she said. "I've tried my best to advocate on behalf of my community."

Since taking office January 20, Trump has issued several executive orders targeting the trans community. These include that the federal government will only recognize two genders — male and female — and declares a person's gender is defined at conception. He signed an executive order targeting federal funding of gender-affirming care for minors. And he issued an executive order that calls for eliminating "all federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology and protecting parental rights."

The president also issued an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military.

"The trail is being covered up behind me," Kolakowski said. "Over the past 12 days, there's been an attempt to create a new reality where I do not exist, where nonbinary people do not exist. Many, many people are terrified now.

"Before, I thought 'we'll get through this.' I still think that," she said. "No person by a signature on a piece of paper makes people disappear. It's most important that the rule of law will save us. All the things I learned about in law school are protected by the people in this room."

Zeidler spoke about his identity as a gay Jewish man and the importance of coming out. In 2004, Zeidler became the first openly gay man elected to a Los Angeles County judgeship. He had previously been appointed a juvenile court referee in 1998, according to the county court's website.

"LGBTQ history is not that big and long," he said. "My husband, Jay [Kohorn], was a lawyer when gay men could be arrested in bars for kissing.

"Fighting oppression is an agent of social change. I was in the gay community during AIDS. I grew up Jewish," he said. "It was the [Barack] Obama campaign that taught people to tell their stories. The marriage equality movement taught people to tell their stories."

Zeidler said that National Coming Out Day, held each October 11, "is also our allies coming out as allies."

Then, addressing allies in the room, he added, "Right now, there are a whole lot of people relying on you to come out as allies."

"Coming out is the greatest tool we have," Zeidler said.

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