Paula Ettelbrick, Veteran LGBT Leader, Dies

Paula Ettelbrick, an attorney who served the LGBT community for almost three decades in senior leadership positions at numerous high-profile organizations, died Friday morning.

Friends reported that Ettelbrick, 56, died of causes related to cancer.

During her career of more than 25 years, Ettelbrick worked for organizations including the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Empire State Pride Agenda, and most recently, the Stonewall Community Foundation. She also taught at the undergraduate, graduate, and law school levels.

Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, which Ettelbrick led before joining the Stonewall Community Foundation last year, paid one of many tributes to her.

“Paula was so many things to so many people — her family, the movement, the New York City and global queer communities,” he wrote in an email. “First and foremost I can say that I found her to be so genuinely deeply unfalteringly committed to our liberation as LGBT people.”

Read more tributes to Ettelbrick at LGBT POV.