http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/10/100605minter.htmF2M lawyerSan Francisco, California) Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights has been named one of the winners of the Leadership for a Changing World awards.
He is one of 17 people - and the only one from the LGBT community - chosen from nearly 1,000 nominations for the prestigious Ford Foundation award that carries a $100,000 prize.
The Center has been at the forefront of legal battles to secure marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Minter also has been instrumental in a number of cases involving the rights of transgender women and men.
Minter has been an adviser, mentor, and lawyer to transgender people across the country. He has represented dozens of transgender clients in cutting edge civil rights cases, as well as provided assistance to other attorneys who represent transgender people.
In 2003, Minter represented transgender father Michael Kantaras in a highly publicized custody case that was televised on Court TV and that exposed millions of viewers, many for the first time, to accurate information about transgender people and the process of sex-reassignment.
Minter has helped to draft and lobby for innovative new federal, state and local laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender people. In Portland, Oregon, he helped local activists develop a non-discrimination policy protecting transgender inmates in the county jail. In San Francisco, he and other community members succeeded in a campaign that led to the city and county being the first government employer in the country to provide equal health-care benefits for transgender employees.
