Honor Award Namesakes

D. Bennett Mazur
Rebecca Lee Locketz

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D. Bennett Mazur, 1924-1994

Award Description
D. Bennett Mazur Award - this is named for the prime sponsor of the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights Bill. This individual worked tirelessly for years on the community's behalf.

Biography
Assemblyman D. Bennett Mazur was the prime sponsor of a New Jersey bill that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The measure was signed into law in 1992 by Gov. Jim Florio. 

Mr. Mazur also championed animal rights and the statewide use of 911 telephone networks, The Associated Press reported when Mr. Mazur died in 1994 at age 69.

Mr. Mazur, a Democrat from Fort Lee in Bergen County, served six terms in New Jersey's Legislature, and was known as a champion of civil rights issues.

Mr. Mazur was born Dec. 24, 1924, in New York City. He won the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts while serving as an infantryman during World War II. He was a graduate of Lafayette College and earned a doctorate from Rutgers University. He was a professor at Ramapo College since 1971.

Prior to his election to the Assembly, Mr. Mazur served on the Bergen County Board of Freeholders from 1965 to 1967, and 1975 to 1980. 

Members of New Jersey's political establishment and representatives of gay, women's, and tenants groups remembered Mr. Mazur as a rare politician who cared for people first and carried that determination into elected office, The Record of Hackensack reported shortly after his death.

Mr. Mazur died as a result of complications from a 1991 stroke. He was survived by his wife, Betty; four children, Peter, Alexandra, Nicole and Daniele, and one grandson. 

Rebecca Lee Locketz, 1956-1997

Award Description
Rebecca Locketz Legal Award - given to someone who has been a legal advocate or who has made an outstanding contribution on the community's behalf for many years. This award is named for an activist and leader in the NJLGC who died in 1997.

Biography
Rebecca Lee Locketz was an attorney specializing in legal issues in the workplace, and an activist and leader in the New Jersey Lesbian & Gay Coalition.

She lived in Rocky Hill in Somerset County with her partner, Pearl Balla.

Ms. Locketz was legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union's workplace division. In that role, she worked on issues such as surveillance of employees; screening and background checks of job applicants; and drug tests in the workplace.

"Some companies want to make sure they don't have workers who might run up a big hospital bill," Ms. Locketz told the Orange County Register in 1996. "Some want to make sure nobody will ever give away company secrets. . . . A lot of others are just paternalistic and arrogant."

And responding to a bill to outlaw same-sex marriages in New Jersey, Ms. Locketz wrote to The New York Times in 1996: "Love makes a family, and if the State of New Jersey does not want to recognize all families, then no families should be given the privileges conferred by our laws."

The ACLU saluted Ms. Locketz in a New York Times ad after her death at age 41 after a 1997 beach accident.

Her colleagues called Ms. Locketz "a trailblazer in the field of workplace rights and genetic testing, and a dedicated community leader who was often described as 'a feminist, lesbian activist committed to social change.'"

In addition to Ms. Balla, Ms. Locketz was survived by her parents, Elinor and William; and two brothers, Jeffrey and Irving.