Content Warning: This article does speak about illegal abortions and sexual assault.
Gloria Allred grew up as an only child in a working-class family in Philadelphia who eventually earned her masters at the University of Pennsylvania and attended Loyola University’s School of Law in Los Angeles.
She started her own law firm named Allred, Maroko & Goldberg which became known for their outstanding amount of womxn’s rights cases. The firm represents people who have felt discriminated against on the basis of sex, race, age, disability, and sexual orientation including AIDS victims. However, she is most well-known for her work as a sexual assault lawyer.
Allred also founded and is currently president of, the Women’s Equal Rights Legal Defense and Education Fund. She’s been a fierce warrior for womxn’s rights for the past five years.
Her work in 2016
Allred once said, “We have to be ever vigilant. I do not want anyone else to suffer the way I did from an illegal abortion.”
When Trump nominateed justices against legal abortion and talked about overruling Roe v. Wade in 2016, a 1973 court case that protects the choice for womxn to get an abortion, Allred was one of the first people to speak up. Her experience with having a back-alley abortion, which almost cost her life, caused Allred to have a deeply emotional reaction to Trump’s threat to a womxn’s right to choose. This experience made her more aware of how laws can have a life-or-death impact which made her devoted to protecting womxn’s rights and choosing what they want for their reproductive health.
She stated that the anti-choice crowd had been very active on the state level and that the Trump administration could easily cut the funds of abortion clinics, so pro-choice activists needed to be vigilant.
Allred attended and spoke at the Women’s March on Washington in January of 2017 as well as encouraged others to attend. She also rallied people to vote who we elect to Congress so that a majority Democratic House and Senate can rule, which American voters got four years later!
What Allred did in 2017
Back in 2017, when the OJ Simpson parole hearings started, Allred was his family’s lawyer. She wanted to change Nevada law so the parole board would consider the inmate’s domestic violence history.
The proposed law would require the parole board to acquire knowledge about their domestic violence convictions, pleas of no contest to domestic battery, and wrongful death lawsuits.
Simpson was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison under 12 convictions in 2017 and he has currently served nine years. The board didn’t consider the misdemeanor convictions against Nicole Brown Simpson because she pleaded no contest to the battery charge against her.
Allred focused on Simpson’s statement that he had a “conflict-free life.” They also didn’t consider the civil judgment saying that Simpson was liable for Nicole Simpson’s death as well as Ronald Goldman which Simpson paid $25 million dollars in punitive damages.
Allred in 2018
Allred also represented the womxn testifying against Bill Cosby– the actor that was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison. He was described by a judge as a “sexually violent predator” and who was once known as “America’s dad.”
She accused Cosby of having no remorse which the judge agreed with during the trial. While some of the victims hoped for a harsher sentence, they were happy to know that Allred brought them justice.
Another important trial in 2019
When R. Kelly wrote a letter threatening to reveal embarrassing details about Ms. Rodgers’ sexual life if she didn’t drop the lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse, Allred sided with her.
R. Kelly’s lawyer argued that it was fake because R. Kelly doesn’t write letters. However, the letter was written in October to one of Rodger’s lawyers when Kelly was served with a lawsuit accusing him of demeaning her, locking her in rooms and vehicles, and subjecting her to non-permissive, painful, abusive sex.
Gloria explained that he can’t and won’t intimidate his alleged victims into keeping silent about what happened to them because womxn shouldn’t be victim-shamed, harassed, or retaliated against because they said their truth.
Her continuing legacy in 2020
When 13-year-old Dylan Muriano, an Asian-American student, faced increasing discrimination because of the Coronavirus outbreak in March of this year, Allred rushed to his defense stating that, “Dylan indicated that he was fine. The teacher ignored his assurance and commanded him to go to the nurse.”
He asked if the reason for him being sent home compared to his non-Asian students was that he was Asian, the teacher was silent. His mother said all they wanted was an apology, but when they didn’t receive that needed apology, they filed a complaint against their middle school and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The teacher retaliated against Dylan and while a senior school administrator was upset, they claimed that they could do nothing about it, and that their son should move out of that classroom.
Gloria Allred is the type of person who puts herself directly in the line of fire for the American public and all she asks for in return is that justice is served. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from 2020, it’s that there aren’t as many people looking to do the right thing without a reward, but Gloria Allred is. This is why she is America’s unsung hero.
Photo Credit: Her Campus Media Library