CHICAGO, Nov. 26, 2019 — American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity will honor Carmelyn Malalis with its Stonewall Award during a ceremony on Feb. 15, 2020, at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Austin, Texas.
As chair of the New York City Human Rights Commission since 2015, Malalis has instituted explicit direction regarding pronoun usage, access to single-sex facilities and programs, compliance with single-sex grooming standards, the provision of equitable employee benefits and individuals held in NYC jails be housed consistent with their gender identity. She expanded the agency staff of 55 speaking six languages to one of 157 people speaking 35 languages. Malalis created human rights law legal enforcement guidance on discrimination based on gender identity and expression, ban-the-box protections, discrimination in employment based on credit history and is working to add guidance on pregnancy discrimination and accommodations, lactation accommodations and race discrimination based on hair.
Previously, Malalis worked for 11 years at Outten & Golden, where she co-founded the law firm’s LGBT Workplace Rights Practice Group and fought discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression by working in close coordination with Lambda Legal, the ACLU’s LGBT Rights Project, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, among others, and by serving on the board of organizations like Queers for Economic Justice.
She took part in writing an amicus brief in H.M. v. E.T. in 2010, which vindicated the right of a lesbian mother to seek child support from her former same-sex partner, who had actively participated in the decisions resulting in the birth of their child.
Malalis has a B.A. from Yale and received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.
You can find a photo of Malalis here.
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.
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