The Stonewall Award Reception will be held during the ABA 2025 Midyear Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. (ABA Headquarters Hotel).
Please register for the ABA Midyear meeting to join us.
February 1, 2025
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm UTC
Sheraton Phoenix Downtown
When he was elected to the Los Angeles Superior Court twenty years ago by the voters of Los Angeles County, the Honorable D. Zeke Zeidler had already served as a Superior Court Referee for over six years, presiding over cases that involved child abuse and neglect. Judge Zeidler is currently a member of the Judicial Council of California’s Center for Judicial Education and Research Advisory Committee and has participated on the Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee, the Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness, and on the State and Tribal Courts Forum. He has chaired the committee that creates anti-bias and ethics curriculum for judicial officers and court staff throughout California, has taught new judge orientation (NJO) and the juvenile dependency primary assignment course for many years, and is chair of the NJO Curriculum Program Workgroup. Judge Zeidler has been a key proponent of state and local judicial training on LGBTQ+ issues and was the first judicial officer in the country to promote judge’s name plates including their pronouns. He has also presented nationally at conferences, trainings, and seminars on diversity, child welfare, and LGBT domestic violence issues. Judge Zeidler has been on the Board of the Juvenile Court Judges of California for many years and was one of the first members of the California Judges Association’s Task Force on the Elimination of Bias and Inequality in our Justice System. In 2024 the Juvenile Court Judges of California named Judge Zeidler as the Wilmont Sweeney Juvenile Court Judge of the Year. While still a student, Zeidler was one of the founding co-chairs of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Student Association (now the Law Student Division of the National LGBT Bar Association). As an attorney, Zeidler represented abused and neglected children and their parents, and served as an officer in NLGLA (now the National LGBT Bar Association). As a judge, Zeidler served four terms as President of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges. Since 2006, he and his husband of 34 years, pioneering LGBT rights attorney Jay Kohorn, have hosted the Rand Schrader LGBTQ+ Law Student Reception, welcoming students from law schools throughout the greater Los Angeles area into their home. In addition to his legal involvements, Judge Zeidler has been very active on education issues. He was first elected to the Redondo Beach School Board in 1995, becoming only the ninth openly Gay or Lesbian school board member in the country, and he was overwhelmingly re-elected in 1999.
In 2006, Judge Kolakowski became the first openly transgender administrative law judge, and in 2010, she became the first openly transgender trial court judge. Prior to becoming a judge, she was an attorney for 21 years in Louisiana and California. Ensuring and expanding access to justice has been the centerpiece of her career. She is a member of the Judicial Council of California’s Advisory Committee and the California Council of Churches' appointee to the California Access to Justice Commission. Judge Kolakowski is past president of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges. A global advocate on LGBT and transgender legal issues, she is also a leading educator for the judiciary and the legal community on transgender issues. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She teaches the class, “Equality and Religious Freedom,” on the intersection of religious freedom and equality rights. In 2019, she was named the 2019 California Legislative Women’s Caucus “Woman of the Year- 18th Assembly District.” Five years earlier, she was named a “Pioneer in the Law,” by the California Women Lawyers. Judge Kolakowski has a B.A. from New College of Florida, an M.S. from Tulane University and the University of New Orleans, a J.D. from Louisiana State University and a Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion.
Since 1996, Galles has represented students in Title IX equal protection or gender equity and sexual harassment cases against school and state athletic associations. 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. Galles was an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University Law School, where she taught first-year law students on topics ranging from constitutional law to Title IX. The founder of Title IX Roundtable, she meets with people to discuss ongoing efforts related to Title IX, including policy, education and litigation. Having served in varying roles in the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice and the Labor and Employment, Litigation and Business Law sections, Galles has worked on legal issues that relate to women, LGBT+, and Title IX amicus briefs. She also developed and conducted Title IX continuing legal education programs and assisted with developing and promoting ABA policy. Most notably, she co-wrote the ABA’s Supreme Court amicus brief in Jackson vs. 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. From 2013-2019, Galles served as a member and liaison to the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. She led an effort to amend the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to include nondiscrimination provision Rule 8.4(g). Galles has a B.A. from Creighton University and J.D. from Washington University School of Law.
