Lambda Legal National Marriage Project Director Jennifer C. Pizer spoke to a sold-out women’s brunch Feb. 27 at Shaw’s Crab House. Shaw’s, through Senior Vice President Steve LaHaie, underwrote the entire event. Chicagoans Gail Morse and Lauren Verdich hosted the brunch.
Pizer spoke about several recent major steps forward in the fight for LGBT equality, including President Obama’s decision to have his Justice Department stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act; Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s statement that she will introduce legislation in the U.S. Senate to eliminate the federal DOMA; the signing of civil unions in Hawaii; and the movement toward civil unions in Maryland.
Pizer said that once civil unions start June 1 in Illinois, 42 percent of citizens in the United States will live within a jurisdiction that affords some protections for same-gender relationships (civil unions, marriage, etc.).
Lambda Legal Midwest Regional Director Jim Bennett also announced that one of the speakers at the organization’s annual Bon Foster benefit, April 28 at the Spertus institute, will be Zach Wahls, the youth who spoke so eloquently to the Iowa state legislature about being raised by two lesbian moms.
This was one of Pizer’s last appearances for Lambda because she will be joining the staff of the Williams Institute soon. At the Lambda Legal women’s brunch, from left: Lauren Verdich, Jim Bennett, Jennifer Pizer, Steve LaHaie, and Gail Morse. Text and photo by Tracy Baim