LGBT Equality Champion Paula L. Ettelbrick Dies

Longtime champion of LGBT equality Paula L. Ettelbrick passed away on Oct. 7 from cancer-related causes at age 56.

Ettelbrick was an attorney and leader in the community, heading a number of equality advocacy organizations including the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission--a post she assumed in 2003 and remained in for six years--and the Stonewall Community Foundation, where she became director in 2010.

Ettelbrick was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University's law school and a lecturer at Barnard College. Her career as an educator included stints at Columbia, the University of Michigan, Whittier Law School's Amsterdam Summer Program, and several other colleges and universities.

Ettelbrick gave the keynote address at the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center's 2009 Come OUT and Find OUT event. The Community Center's website offered information about Ettelbrick's long career of service to LGBT equality causes.

"A lawyer by profession, Paula has a 25-year history in leadership positions within LGBT advocacy non-profits in the United States," the site's text noted. "She has served as the legal director at Lambda Legal Defense, policy director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, legislative counsel for the Empire State Pride Agenda, and family policy director at the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

"Paula has written and spoken extensively about civil, constitutional and human rights issues related to sexuality, gender and sexual orientation," the text continued.

Ettelbrick was honored at the 2011 SAGE Awards. Information at the SAGE ("Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Transgender Elders") website noted that Ettelbrick served as "Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's first staff attorney and subsequently as Legal Director from 1986 to 1993, where she helped shape the community's national legal agenda--making Lambda the nation's leading LGBT legal advocacy group.

"In 1993 Paula became Public Policy Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and worked with the US Congress and other federal agencies to move forward a lesbian health and federal civil rights agenda," the text added. "She also co-founded the Federation of LGBT Statewide Political Groups."

LGBT Equality organizations expressed sorrow at Ettelbrick's passing and respect for her life's work.

"Many of us at GMHC had the honor of partnering with her when she worked at the Empire State Pride Agenda, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and more recently when was the Executive Director of the Stonewall Community Foundation," a release from New York-based Gay Men's Health Crisis said.

"Not only was she concerned about human rights in the United States, she advocated globally for the rights of LGBT people, particularly those impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

"As an example of her staunch advocacy, when the Bush Administration's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had a lack of funding allocated for prevention programs targeting gay men and women, she stated in 2006: 'The U.S. government is doing nothing to ensure that any attention is being paid to the spread of the epidemic among men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women, particularly in Africa. This negligence could sabotage the entire HIV prevention effort overseas,' " the statement recalled.

The GMHC release called Ettelbrick "Beautiful, articulate, smart and hard-hitting" and "a force to be reckoned with.

"We will miss her fierceness, eloquence and graciousness," the release added. "We send our tender thoughts to all the members of her family, chosen and biological, as well as all those who have been touched by Paula's life and work."

"Paula was a pioneering lawyer and dedicated leader in our movement," HRC President Joe Solmonese said in an Oct. 7 release. "We mourn the loss of a tremendous force in the LGBT community and honor her unrivaled commitment to the full equality of all people. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends."

"Our movement has lost a great hero and we are deeply saddened by the passing of Paula Ettelbrick," said Empire State Pride Agenda's Ross D. Levi in an Oct. 7 release. "From 1994 to 1999 Paula served as Legislative Counsel to the Pride Agenda, and we are honored to have been touched by her passion and commitment to our community.

"While at the Pride Agenda, Paula was a strong, pioneering voice for LGBT family issues," added Levi. "She negotiated New York City's landmark 1997 domestic partnership law with then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. At the time, it was the nation's most comprehensive measure of its kind, extending to domestic partners all the same rights and benefits offered to spouses under City law.

"During that time, Paula also played a leading role in the creation of the Equality Federation, the national alliance of statewide LGBT advocacy organizations, on whose Board the Pride Agenda sits," Levi continued. "The Pride Agenda and scores of our sister state LGBT organizations continue to benefit from her vision that the states have a vital role in our national progress on LGBT equality and justice, and that we are stronger when we learn from and coordinate with each other.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that the LGBT movement in New York and across America would not be where it is today without Paula's tenacity and leadership," Levi added. "She will be deeply missed."