CHICAGO, March 6, 2012 – For the first time ever, an American Bar Association commission will formally honor lawyers who have considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes.

The ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is taking nominations of exceptional lawyers, judges and legal academics for its inaugural Stonewall Award. The annual award is 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.

Nominations must be submitted electronically by 6 p.m. Eastern on May 31. The commission will announce award recipients in September, and the presentation ceremony will take place at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Dallas in February 2013.

Award criteria and nomination requirements are online at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/sexual_orientation/stonewall_award.html.

Created by the ABA in 2007, the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity works to secure for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons full and equal participation in the ABA, the legal profession and the justice system.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the world’s largest voluntary professional membership organization. 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.

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