Sen. Baldwin named ABA Stonewall Award winner

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The American Bar Association is recognizing Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, for her work as a champion of LGBT legal causes. Baldwin is one of the association’s 2021 Stonewall Award winners.

The award, named after the New York City Stonewall Inn police raid and riot in 1969, recognizes lawyers who have advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully advocated for LGBT legal causes.

Baldwin became the first openly LGBTQ woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 and to the Senate in 2013. She also the first openly lesbian member of the Wisconsin Assembly upon her election in 1992, making her one of few openly gay politicians in the U.S. at the time. In 1994, Baldwin proposed legalizing same-sex marriage in Wisconsin and in 1995 proposed domestic partnerships in Wisconsin.

In 2018, she was one of 20 senators who signed a letter to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to reinstate a policy that granted visas to same-sex partners of LGBTQ diplomats who had unions that were not recognized by their home countries. In 2019, Baldwin joined 17 other senators in signing a letter to Pompeo requesting an explanation of a State Department decision not to issue an official statement that year commemorating Pride Month nor to issue the annual cable outlining activities for embassies commemorating Pride Month.

Baldwin has a B.A. from Smith College and J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

The ABA also named California Supreme Court Associate Justice Martin Jenkins and Hawaii Supreme Court Judge Sabrina McKenna as 2021 Stonewall Award Winners. Jenkins is the first openly LGBTQ justice and the third African-American man to serve on the court. McKenna is the first openly LGBTQ judge to sit on the Hawaii Supreme Court. Both have long careers of advocating for LGBTQ causes.

The ABA’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identify will honor the 2021 winners during a virtual ceremony on Feb. 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the ABA Midyear Meeting. Registration for meeting is available here. Follow @WLJReporter