Advancing LGBT Civil Rights

Malcolm Lazin

Founder and Executive Director

Malcolm Lazin

Malcolm Lazin is the executive director of Equality Forum, a national and international LGBT civil rights organization with an educational focus. 

Malcolm was a federal prosecutor and led successful major grand jury investigations into public corruption. He received the U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the Department of Justice’s highest honor.

He served as a commissioner and then the chair of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, the principal state agency investigating organized crime. He was a litigation partner in a Philadelphia law firm.

Malcolm was president of a real estate development firm that built the first major project on Philadelphia’s waterfront. He chaired the Philadelphia Waterfront Developers Council, which spearheaded infrastructure improvements. He conceived the idea to light the Benjamin Franklin Bridge; helped form the bi-state committee; and co-chaired development, which raised $1.7 million to fund the project.

He is chair of the Washington Square Committee. Malcolm led a 15-year effort that resulted in Washington Square, the largest Revolutionary War burial site being included in Independence National Historical Park.

Lazin is the executive producer of three award-winning documentary films:  "JIM IN BOLD," "Gay Pioneers" and “Saint of 9/11”.

Lazin is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2005 Creative Leadership in Human Rights Award of the National Education Association (NEA) and the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus Award of Lebanon Valley College. He is a 2007 Prime Mover of the Hunt Alternatives Fund, which annually selects eight national nonprofit leaders who are spearheading innovative, strategic, progressive movements.


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