Equality Forum

Malcolm L. Lazin (born December 5, 1943) is an American social activist, prosecutor, entrepreneur, and educator. His endeavors include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) civil rights, federal and state law enforcement, developing Philadelphia’s waterfront, lighting the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and incorporating Washington Square—the largest revolutionary war burial ground—into Independence National Historical Park.

Lazin is the founder of Equality Forum (a national and international LGBT civil rights organization headquartered in Philadelphia). and LGBT History Month. As Vince Bellino explains, “Equality Forum has, for the last decade, organized LGBT History Month, which honors 31 icons of the movement each year.” He is also the executive producer of three award-winning documentary films.

Lazin's political commentary following the 2016 U.S. presidential election has been published in the Chicago Tribune,Philadelphia Inquirer, and Washington Blade.

Lazin has received the U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award (the Department of Justice’s highest honor); the Creative Leadership in Human Rights Award from the National Education Association; the Lifetime Hero Award of the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund; and is a Prime Mover of the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

Lazin is an adjunct professor at the New College of Florida and an Emeritus Trustee of Lebanon Valley College. He has presented lectures on LGBT civil rights at high schools, colleges, and national meetings in the United States and Canada.

Lazin resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Sarasota, Florida; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The oldest of five children, Lazin was raised in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. His father was an osteopathic physician and his mother a homemaker.

Lazin attended Lebanon High School. In his junior year, he won the Lebanon County Optimist Oratorical Contest. In his senior year, against the advice of his teacher, he selected the topic “The Plight of the American Negro” for the school’s contest, which began his lifetime of activism. Lazin also was publicity officer for the Lebanon AZA, a Jewish youth organization, and became president of the AZA’s Southeast Pennsylvania and Delaware region.

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