CHICAGO, Nov. 7, 2022 — The American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) will honor transgender activist, author and lawyer Ellie Krug with its Stonewall Award during a ceremony on Feb. 4, 2023, at the ABA Midyear Meeting in New Orleans.
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.
Krug is a transgender activist, author and lawyer. She was the first Iowa lawyer to transition genders – in 2009 at the age of 52 – and one of the first attorneys nationally to try jury cases in separate genders.
Krug lost her law practice in Cedar Rapids as a result of transitioning, and moved to the Twin Cities, where she was hired as the founding director of Call for Justice LLC, which connected low-income people with Minnesota legal resources. It was there that Krug began to speak and train on transgender rights. In 2016 she founded a consulting and training company, Human Inspiration Works, LLC.
She is the author of “Getting to Ellen: A Memoir about Love, Honesty and Gender Change” and hosts Ellie 2.0, a radio show and podcast out of the Twin Cities. In 2016, Advocate Magazine named her one of “25 Legal Advocates Fighting for Trans Rights.” OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, honored Krug with its 2019 Legacy Award.
She has a bachelor’s degree from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.
You can find a photo of Krug 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.
The ABA is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.