( NEW YORK February 23, 2018 ) — Today, Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest LGBT legal organization, announced Evan Wolfson as a recipient of this year's Liberty Award. The Liberty Awards National Dinner honors advocates, activists and allies in the fight for LGBT equality. Evan Wolfson will receive the Kevin Cathcart Community Legacy Award, an award named in honor of Lambda Legal's former Executive Director. The award will be presented to Wolfson at the annual gala event on April 30th in New York City.
"We are thrilled to recognize Evan Wolfson, one of our own alumni, with this year's Community Legacy Award," said Rachel B. Tiven, CEO of Lambda Legal. "Evan's clarity about true equality drove his work at Lambda Legal and then beyond. As a lawyer at Lambda, he not only brought the first successful marriage equality case in Hawaii — he also led the case that challenged the Boy Scouts' exclusion of gay people. He left Lambda Legal to create Freedom to Marry, and moved national opinion to favor equality. In all of his work he sees the long game, and he leads others with love and hope."
"I began volunteering with Lambda Legal shortly after graduating law school — and decades of strategy and tenacity, persuasion and combat, later, still prize Lambda Legal as one of the central pillars and drivers of our movement," said Evan. "Lambda Legal never gives up, generously partners with others, and is unafraid to lead. I count so many of the lawyers, staff, volunteers, board, and supporters of this vital institution among my cherished friends, and am happy to see Lambda standing in solidarity with so many overlapping communities and shared values under assault today, while continuing to propel advances for LGBT inclusion, equality and freedom. Freedom to Marry achieved its mission, but the work we look to Lambda Legal to lead is far from over — and I remain, as I became in 1984, a committed supporter and proud part of the Lambda family.
Information about this year's honoree:
Evan Wolfson is a lawyer and an advocate, and he has been a leading strategist behind numerous cases on behalf of LGBT people and everyone living with HIV. After serving as Director of Lambda Legal's Marriage Project, Evan founded Freedom to Marry, a national organization dedicated to winning marriage equality that was instrumental in the 2015 Supreme Court victory. Wolfson has been named a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown Law Center, where he teaches law and social change; a Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale University; Senior Counsel at Dentons and pro bono Senior Advisor to the National Immigration Law Center — teaching the next generation of activists while advising and assisting diverse organizations, movements, and countries eager to adapt the lessons on "how to win" from the Freedom to Marry campaign to other causes.
Lambda Legal's premier national gala is a testament to the breadth and strength of the LGBT community, drawing attendees from across the country. This year's awards ceremony will take place on Monday, April 30th at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers in New York City.
For more information on the Awards Dinner or to sponsor or purchase a ticket please visit: www.lambdalegal.org/libertyawards .
WHAT: Lambda Legal's Liberty Awards National Dinner
HONOREES: Evan Wolfson, lawyer and advocate
WHEN: Monday, April 30, at 6pm ET
WHERE: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
23rd Street and The West Side Highway
New York, NY 10011
