11.26.19 — Chase Strangio ’10 and Carmelyn Malalis ’01, both nationally recognized LGBT legal activists, will be honored by the American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with its eighth annual Stonewall Award during a ceremony in February at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Austin, Texas.  

Named after the New York City Stonewall Inn police raid and riot of June 28, 1969, which was a turning point in the gay rights movement, the award recognizes lawyers who have considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes. 

Strangio is a staff attorney at the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project in New York, where his work has included being a member of the legal team of Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex marriage, and G.G. v. Gloucester City School Board, which challenged a Virginia public school district’s policy prohibiting transgender students from using the restroom conforming to their gender identity, at the US Supreme Court. He also served as lead counsel for Chelsea Manning in Manning v. Hagel, a suit against US Department of Defense officials for their failure to provide necessary treatment for her gender dysphoria, and as a member of the legal teams in challenges to the North Carolina “bathroom bill” and to President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban. In addition, Strangio is the founder and board president of the Lorena Borjas Community Fund in New York, which provides direct bail/bond assistance and other court support to LGBTQ immigrants involved in the criminal justice system.  

MalalisMalalis is chair of the New York City Human Rights Commission, where she has instituted regulations to root out discrimination based on gender identity, including regarding pronoun usage, access to single-sex facilities and programs, and compliance with single-sex grooming standards. Other policies she instituted include equitable employee benefits and the provision of housing consistent with an individual’s gender identity in New York City jails. Previously, she worked for 11 years at Outten & Golden, where she co-founded the firm’s LGBT Workplace Rights Practice Group and worked in close coordination with Lambda Legal, the ACLU’s LGBT Rights Project, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, among others.  

The ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity leads the ABA’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and full and equal participation by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the ABA, the legal profession and society. Created in 2007, the commission seeks to secure equal treatment in the ABA, the legal profession and the justice system without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. A third 2020 Stonewall Award will be given to James J.S. Holmes, a partner at Clyde & Co. in Los Angeles, who helped create the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and served as previously served as its chair. 

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