Join us on Thursday, April 21st, for the Dr. Robert Bailey Memorial Lecture.  Dr. Robert Bailey was a former professor of public policy and administration, and a champion for the rights of the LGBTQ community.  

The guest speaker for the lecture will be Steven Goldstein, Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, and a civil rights activist who founded Garden State Equality, an organization that focuses on LGBTQ equality in the state of New Jersey.

The event begins at 4:30 p.m. on the twelfth floor of the Gloria Bonilla-Santiago Building, located at 130 N. Broadway in Camden.  Light refreshments will be served.  Registration is required.

Robert Bailey

A recognized specialist in urban policy and public finance, Dr. Bailey’s scholarship focused on national attention on the growing significance of gay and lesbian issues in urban politics. Dr. Bailey joined the Rutgers–Camden faculty in 1994 and was promoted to associate professor in 1997. He authored three books, including “Gay Politics/Urban Politics” (Columbia University Press, 1999), and co-founded the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus for political science.

Prior to his arrival at Rutgers–Camden, Dr. Bailey held several policy positions in New York City, including assistant to the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs and analyst for the Financial Control Board. He continued to serve as a consultant for numerous national and global initiatives, ranging from New York City mayoral candidates to United Nations work in Pakistan. 

Steven Goldstein 

Mr. Goldstein led Garden State Equality from when he founded it in 2004 until 2013, when New Jersey allowed same-sex marriage as a result of a court ruling in Garden State Equality v. Dow, filed in 2011. Since 2013, he has been an Associate Professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey, and in political science at Rutgers–Newark, where he had previously served as Associate Chancellor for External Affairs. He teaches courses on civil rights and social justice, legislative advocacy, political communication, campaigns and elections, and other courses in law and American politics. He is also Deputy Vice Chair of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee.

In September 2002, Goldstein and his then-partner, Daniel Gross, became the first same-sex couple ever to be included in the wedding announcements of The New York Times, marking both their wedding in Montreal and their civil union in Vermont the next day.  In February 2007, they became the first same-sex couple to enter a civil union in New Jersey. In 2015, Goldstein and Gross announced they are no longer a couple.

Goldstein is a lawyer, former television producer,and one-time rabbinical student.  He received his B.A. from Brandeis University, an M.P.P. (Master in Public Policy) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and his J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Goldstein was played by Steve Carell in the 2015 movie Freeheld, based on the 2008 Academy Award-winning documentary of the same name. Goldstein is a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey