Sebastian Maguire, Esq.

President & FOUNDER

Sebastian Maguire is a human rights lawyer whose career has focused on advancing LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights. He has a background in nonprofit management as well as direct advocacy. For twelve years, Sebastian worked with the New York City Council to advance groundbreaking legislation to empower LGBTQ+ and immigrant New Yorkers. Sebastian earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from NYU School of Law. Sebastian Maguire is a human rights attorney working in government, the nonprofit sector, and private practice.

Neal A. Stone

Board member, Co-FOUNDER

Neal A. Stone, MCIP, AICP is a Senior Urban & Regional Community Planner for the Town of North Hempstead, Nassau County, Long Island. Mr. Stone has lived in New York City for the last two decades, having worked for two planning consultancies, as well as local and county government. A native of Kamsack, Saskatchewan whose alma mater is the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg), Mr. Stone originally departed the Canadian Prairies for the Republic of the Philippines in 1997 to provide volunteer human rights and environmental education service overseas. His urban planning expertise has included project management in affordable housing, major transportation system management, state and city environmental impact preparation, and open space preservation/resource protection initiatives in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Neal is currently contributing to a medium-term cultural planning initiative for the Caguayo Foundation in Santiago de Cuba. He is a member in good standing of the Canadian Institute of Planners (International) and American Institute of Certified Planners since 2000. Mr. Stone serves on Boards of Directors for "Seeking Asylum Finding Empowerment (SAFE)"; "Damayan Migrant Workers Association"; "Queens Pride Lions Club"; and is Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the American Planning Association's Divisions Council (national). 

Tom Smith

Board Member, Co-FOUNDER

Tom has been a Registered Nurse since 1978, and a home care nurse for 35 years. A few of the organizations and projects worked for and on are:

• Stonewall Democratic Club (SDC): board member and former President.

• Former spokesperson for the Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights (CLGR) the organization that passed the NYC Human Rights Bill in 1986; CLGR gave first two thousand dollars to organize the 1987 March on Washington.

• CLGR held first hearings on homeless PWA’s in NYC; CLGR persuaded the City & State to hold the first hearings on homeless PWA’s.

• CLGR held hearings called “Why Shouldn’t We Boycott Channel 13,” which helped get “In the Life” on the air.

• Co-founder of Family Diversity Coalition which wrote & introduced the first City & State Domestic Partnership bills in 1987 & 1988 – one of the first in the nation. The coalition was a major force in persuading Mayor Dinkins to write the first executive order establishing Domestic Partnerships.

• Co-founder of AllOutArts1992, an LGBT arts not-for-profit; AllOutArts runs the annual Fresh Fruit Festival.

• Co-founder of the Stonewall Business Association 1991

• Co-founder of The Wall Street Project and in 1993 did the first survey on the Fortune 500 on LGBT employee rights in US history. Alan Hevesi, at the urging of The Wall Street Project, introduced the first shareholder resolution in the history of the United States requiring that the Cracker Barrel Old Time Restaurant Corp. have a written policy protecting its Lesbian & Gay employees against discrimination.

• Co-founded Equality Project, a not-for-profit, and co-authored the Equality Principles on Corporate Responsibility (Ten principles on corporate conduct and behavior); the Equality Principles which became the bases of the HRC Corporate Index.

• Co-authored the NYC Bias-Related Violence Law 1993

• Founding President of the Brooklyn Community Pride Center 2008-2011

• Founding President Stonewall Community Development Corp 2013 and current board member not for profit to create affordable housing for the lgbt Seniors of NYC. We believe that seniors of the Stonewall generation often were paid less than their counterparts and have a higher need for affordable housing, and services that understand the psycho/social and health needs of the LGBT Senior. We are launching a survey of needs as well as working with developers to create housing and services in all 5 boroughs.

Suzanne Scoggins

Board Member

Suzanne is an assistant professor of political science and Director of Asian Studies at Clark University. Her work focuses on policing in reform-era China and explores themes of local governance, bureaucratic policies, and authoritarian control. Her academic articles have appeared in the China Quarterly, Asian Survey, and PS: Political Science and Politics. More digestible bits of her research have also appeared in The Economist, The Diplomat, and Business Insider. She received her PhD in political science from UC Berkeley in 2016. She is the author of Policing China: Street-Level Cops in Shadow of Protest.

Ed Hung, Esq. 

Board Member

Ed is an attorney in general practice representing the Chinese community in greater Boston and Northern California. He is a volunteer adult education tutor at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Ed has previously volunteered through Lawyers in the Library, providing free consultation and referrals on a wide variety of legal issues and Community Education Partnerships, a tutoring program for homeless children in the San Francisco Bay Area. His representative asylum cases include ethnic minorities and the LGBTQ community in Asia.