Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur stands with his 2025 Pride Month Honoree, Jenny Pizer, Chief Legal Officer and Eden/Rushing Chair for Lambda Legal, on the California State Assembly Floor on Monday, June 23rd. From Left: Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), LGBTQ+ Caucus Chair Assemblymember Christopher Ward (D-San Diego), District 51Pride Month Honoree Jenny Pizer, Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood), and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
SACRAMENTO, CA – Democratic Caucus Chair and Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur presented Jenny Pizer, Chief Legal Officer for Lambda Legal, as his 2025 Assembly District 51 Pride Month Honoree. Pizer is Chief Legal Officer and Eden/Rushing Chair for Lambda Legal, the country's oldest and largest legal organization representing the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people and people living with HIV.
"For almost three decades, Jenny has been a pivotal leader in the national brain trust of the LGBTQ+ movement," said Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur. "Jenny has shaped the long-term strategy aimed at achieving full, lived equality for LGBTQ+ people, and her work has never been more vital than it is today, as we face the most hostile federal climate toward LGBTQ+ people in my lifetime."
Pizer has been one of the LGBTQ+ community's key legal strategists in the national fight for full equality for almost three decades and leads the organization's Legal Department of 40 lawyers and 12 paraprofessionals working nationwide. Since joining Lambda Legal's staff in 1996, Jenny has litigated cases to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in employment, education, health care, and family law, including marriage, and against the use of religion and free speech rights to license discrimination.
"I am deeply grateful to Assemblymember Rick Zbur for this recognition and am beyond inspired to be among the extraordinary honorees here today as our great state's Capitol leadership celebrates Pride," said Honoree Jenny Pizer. "This support and celebration are especially critical this year as our community stands together in the face of a cruel and unprecedented federal government assault. Over multiple generations, California's leaders have advanced inclusive and just policy for LGBTQ+ people, offering models for the nation as a whole. That vision and effectiveness are needed now more than ever."
Pizer has also worked closely with elected officials and LGBTQ+ policy advocacy groups at the federal level and in many states, particularly in California, on conceiving, framing, and advocating for legislation and regulatory reforms. Pizer was co-counsel in the litigation that won marriage equality in California in 2008, and then protected the marriages of 18,000 lesbian and gay couples celebrated there before the passage of Proposition 8. She also served as lead counsel in Majors vs. Jeanes, the successful federal case against Arizona's ban on marriage for same-sex couples.
Pizer's leadership has been and continues to be critical as we fight to protect hard-won rights and advance the promise of full, lived LGBTQ+ equality for future generations.
Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur serves as the Democratic Caucus Chair for the California State Assembly and represents the 51st Assembly District, which includes Universal City, Hollywood, Hancock Park, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and other portions of Los Angeles.
CONTACT: Vienna Montague, (916) 319-2051, Vienna.Montague@asm.ca.gov