2012 Honorees of Distinction
 In a case that has become monumental for gay rights and marriage equality, Edith Windsor took on the federal government and the Defense of Marriage Act, when she was forced to pay $350,000 in taxes on the estate of her late partner Thea Spyer, who passed away in 2009. Edith and Thea shared their lives in New York City for nearly half a century and were married in Canada in 2007, but their union was never recognized by the federal government. Represented by Roberta Kaplan of Paul, Weiss, Edith is suing the federal government for the tax charge. Her case is one of two lawsuits that prompted President Obama to direct the Department of Justice to stop defending DOMA, which he has said is unconstitutional. Conservative lawmakers relentlessly still defend the law. With the case still pending, this octogenarian continues to be a champion for marriage equality. The award-winning 2009 documentary film, Edie & Thea - A Very Long Engagement, illuminates the lives and story of Edith and Thea and their forty plus year journey together that Edith continues in the courts today.
Learn more: BusinessWeek | ABC News | A Very Long Engagement - Trailer
  Police officers and advocates alike know that they can reach Lauren Hersh, Chief of the Sex Trafficking Unit for the Kings County District Attorney's Office, any time of the day or night. It takes more than a 9 to 5 approach to catch some of the most vicious sex traffickers operating on the streets of New York City. Whether it's meeting at a diner with a young woman who has been sold on the internet or delving into the Facebook pages of pimps, Lauren is on the frontlines of this fight. Passionate about making real change in a city recognized as a human trafficking hub, Lauren helped to create one of the first-ever sex-trafficking prosecutorial units in the country. In the last year and a half, she led her team to prosecute 32 sex traffickers, some who had trafficked girls as young as 12 years old. Lauren's work doesn't stop at building cases and securing convictions, she was at the helm of creating a public awareness campaign on sex trafficking and she has become a powerful advocate for stronger laws and more effective intervention for prostituted women and girls.
 Activist and educator, Ileana Jiménez, is transforming education one student at a time. Her high school students learn about feminism by advocating against the commercial sexual exploitation of children, by testifying against street harassment, and blogging about the sexualization of girls and women in the media. She has even inspired boys and young men to become feminists and male allies in the movement. Currently a teacher at the Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI) in New York, Ileana has created an array of courses, including ones on feminism and LGBT literature that have gained the attention of education and activist circles. A frequently-asked speaker on issues of gender and sexuality in schools, she has traveled the country to take her message of feminism, equity, and social justice to educators. In an effort to inspire K-12 teachers to bring an inclusive lens to their work in classrooms, Ileana launched her blog feministteacher.com several years ago. The site has become a source of news and inspiration for teachers around the globe. In 2009, she was named one of the 30 Women Making History by the Women’s Media Center; the following year, she was named one of the 40 Feminists Under 40 by the Feminist Press; and she is the 2010-11 recipient of the Distinguished Fulbright Award in Teaching, for which she traveled to Mexico City to interview LGBT youth to create safe and inclusive schools.
Learn more: Feminist Teacher | The Feministing Five | Shades Magazine
 Through his bold work, Quentin Walcott is pushing communities to redefine manhood and is building a society that embraces equality and rejects violence against women and girls as the status quo. An anti-violence activist and educator, he has spent the last 16 years addressing a critical part of the equation to stopping violence against women: men. Quentin has developed and launched some of New York City’s only programs aimed at transforming bystanders, male youth, and even batterers into allies and activists against all forms of violence. He is the Director of the CONNECT’s Training Institute and Community Empowerment Program, through which he and his team have trained over 300 community professionals to facilitate groups on family violence issues. He also spearheads CONNECT’s Male Anti-Violence initiatives, creating a wide range of programming on manhood and fatherhood that has been delivered across New York City, including inventive programs for teens. Convener of the newly created V-Day Men’s Committee, he developed a curriculum for young adult males that examined violence against women and girls at the 2011 New York Stop the Violence Festival. He served as co-chair of the Committee on Working with Abusive Partners (CoWAP) for six years, running batterers programs throughout New York City.
Learn more: Where Are the Men? | V-Day Campaign
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