A San Antonio attorney will be one of three LGBT legal activists to be honored by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with a Stonewall Award which will be presented at the group’s mid-year meeting in Vancouver in February.
Eduardo Juarez is currently a supervisory trial attorney with the San Antonio field office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he litigates lawsuits under federal civil rights statutes that prohibit employment discrimination.
Juarez was formerly a public defender in Washington, D.C. He began his legal career as an associate with the law firm of Sidley & Austin in Chicago. He received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and earned his law degree from the University of Michigan.
In 2011, Juarez worked as special assistant to Chai Feldblum, the first out lesbian EEOC commissioner. His work in the LGBT legal community was widely praised. In 2014, he received the EEOC Pride “Chai Feldblum Award” for his significant contributions.
Eduardo Juarez at the 2011 Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio awards dinner with Choco Gonzalez Mezza, who at the time was the chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party. (Photo: Sam Sanchez)
Juarez has been active in various LGBT political and professional organizations where he has held leadership positions. He is a past president of the National LGBT Bar Association, being the first Hispanic gay man to hold that office. He also is a former chair of the LGBT Law Section for the State Bar of Texas and past co-chair of the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio.
The other two Stonewall Award recipients are: Phyllis Randolph Frye, an associate judge for the Municipal Courts in Houston and the first openly transgender judge appointed in Texas; and Jennifer L. Levi, the director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project and a nationally recognized expert on transgender legal issues.
“The American Bar Association is pleased to recognize these three gay rights pioneers. Each has been a forceful voice for LGBT inclusion and legal progress,” Mark Johnson Roberts, chair of the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, said in a press release.
