Garden State Equality's 2010 Legends Dinner Held 6/26, Ebersole, Stritch To Appear

With a vast array of superstars from Hollywood, Broadway, Washington and from New Jersey politics, Garden State Equality's annual Legends Dinner - a black-tie event so filled with celebrities, glamour and a ballroom dramatically transformed by Hollywood technical veterans, it has become known as New Jersey's Oscars® - is 5:00 pm Saturday night, June 26, 2010 at the Maplewood Country Club, 28 Baker Street, Maplewood, New Jersey. Among the hardest tickets to come by for a gala anywhere in the country, the 2010 Legends Dinner sold out a month ago and there is a waiting list of more than 300. Proceeds will go to Garden State Equality's educational programs for marriage equality and other LGBT civil rights.

This year's performers will include the comedic legend of stage and screen, Sandra Bernhard; two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole accompanied by Grammy Award winner Billy Stritch; the star of television's "American Idol," Anwar Robinson; the star of Broadway's "La Cage Aux Folles" and "42nd Street," Lee Roy Reams; the star of Broadway's "Les Miserables," Max Von Essen; and the entire cast of the outrageously funny "Forbidden Broadway."

The honorees of the 2010 Legends Dinner are: U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, winner of the Loretta Weinberg Prize for Lifetime Achievement; Senators Bill Baroni, Nia Gill and Raymond Lesniak, inducted into the Equality Hall of Fame; the ACLU of New Jersey, winner of the Gibbons Prize for Law and Social Justice; McCarter and English, winner of the Pillar of Progress Prize; ADP and Merck, winners of the Corporate Equality Award; and John Otto III and Marsha Shapiro & Louise Walpin, winners of the Lt. Laurel Hester Prize for Citizen Courage.

The corporate sponsors of the 2010 Legends Dinner are: ADP, Children's Specialized Hospital, Chubb, Entrust Northeast, Gibbons, Green Hill, Leaders in Travel, McCarter & English, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Olivia, Peterpaul & Clark, Princeton Public Affairs Group, Prudential, Tonio Burgos & Associates, and Weissman & Mintz.

In the audience will be a who's who of other public officials and dignitaries from across the state.

The Chairs of the 2010 Legends Dinner are Dr. Stacy Brodsky and Felice Londa of Maplewood, longtime leaders in Garden State Equality. The Executive Producers of the dinner are Alan George and Gary Stevens of Weehawken, Broadway veterans with decades of show business experience since the original Broadway production of "A Chorus Line."

Since Garden State Equality's founding in 2004, New Jersey has won 211 LGBT civil rights laws at the state, county and local levels. That represents more LGBT civil rights laws enacted in less time than in any other state in U.S. history. In 2009 and 2010, the watchdog organization eQualityGiving.com ranked New Jersey #1 in America for LGBT civil rights, tied with California, Iowa and Vermont.

The theme of the 2010 Legends Dinner is "Relentless." Garden State Equality has achieved its success through the relentless activism, marked by passion without excuse every single day, that has characterized other civil rights movements throughout American history. Garden State Equality will not relent until New Jersey achieves marriage equality.

With more than 75,000 members, Garden State Equality is New Jersey's largest civil rights organization of any kind. Two years ago, the organization had 24,000 members.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.