Kay Lorraine

Lorraine worked as chief executive officer of a film production company and an executive at a non-profit agency.[1] Groups with which she was involved include Hawaii Women Lawyers,[2] and her efforts at the Innocence Project helped young women who were incarcerated.[1]

She advanced her education by earning an undergraduate degree in public policy at the University of Hawaii and stayed at that institution to achieve a Juris Doctor from its Richardson School of Law.[1] When she received it in 2017 at age 70, she became the oldest law student to graduate from that school.[2]

In 2014, the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission found that Lorraine, as a Jewish woman,[3] had been the victim of religious and sexual discrimination in a hostile work environment at her 2004-2007 workplace, the Research Institute for Hawaii, USA. The commission held the institute and its founder, Christopher Damon Haig, liable and awarded her $843,200.[4] Grounds for the decision included Haig's calling Lorraine a "Jewish seductress enticing him to sign her invoices" and his references to her "subversive Hebrew intent"[5] and her "Hebrew foot shuffling to steal other people's intelligence."[4] The commission considered Haig's conduct pervasive and severe. Despite emotional breakdowns, Lorraine had remained on the job because it provided the bulk of her household's income. The commission noted that she complained about Haig's comments to a member of the institute's board and received the reply "That's just Christopher being Christopher".[5] The compensation included damages and back pay.[3]

Lorraine was married to Raymond G. Sweeney, a newspaperman.[6] Lee Meyers, a radio publicist,[7] and Brad Bate, with whom she moved to Hawaii in 2003.[2]