Salisbury native Anne Stanback has received the William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice from Yale University.

Stanback has spent 30 years working for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights, including her work as the founding executive director of Love Makes a Family, the lead organization that successfully fought for the freedom to marry in Connecticut.

In addition, she served as the volunteer co-director of the Connecticut Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights during the passage of the 1991 law that prohibited discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation.

Stanback later worked as part of the Connecticut Equality coalition to add gender identity and expression to the state’s nondiscrimination law.

Prior to her work with Love Makes a Family, Stanback was the executive director of both the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) and the Connecticut affiliate of the National Abortion Rights Action League (CT NARAL). Currently, Stanback serves as the director of Strategic Partnerships at Equality Federation, working in states around the country to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Stanback has received numerous awards for her work on behalf of women and the LGBT community and in 2006 was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.

Stanback is an active member at Immanuel Congregational Church (UCC) in Hartford. She is a graduate of Davidson College and Yale Divinity School.  She lives in Avon, Conn., with her wife, Charlotte Kinlock.

The Coffin Award is given in honor of the life and ministry of William Sloane Coffin, former chaplain at Yale University and one of the 20th century’s most significant religious leaders. The recipient of the Coffin award is someone who shares Coffin’s passionate and prophetic witness, a courageous devotion to the dignity and worth of all persons, and who has made a notable contribution to the work of peace and reconciliation.