Below is a list of the names of openly LGBT persons who have served on the highest court of a state or territory in the United States.
The first state with an openly LGBT justice was Oregon, where Rives Kistler was named to the bench in 2003. [1] The first U.S. territory with an openly LGBT justice was Guam, where Benjamin Cruz was appointed in 1997. [2] As of October 2,2024 [update] , there are 11 openly LGBT state supreme court justices, serving in 9 states.
Order | State | Court | Justice | Ref | Service as justice | As chief justice | Mandatory retirement |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Colorado | Colorado Supreme Court | Monica Márquez | [3] | 2010–present | 2024–present | 2041 |
2 | Hawaii | Supreme Court of Hawaii | Sabrina McKenna | [4] | 2011–present | – | 2027 |
3 | Connecticut | Connecticut Supreme Court | Andrew J. McDonald | [5] | 2013–present | 2024–present | 2036 |
4 | Washington | Washington Supreme Court | Mary Yu | [6] | 2014–present | – | 2032 |
5 | Nevada | Supreme Court of Nevada | Lidia S. Stiglich | [7] | 2016–present | 2023–2024 | 2024 |
6 | New Mexico | New Mexico Supreme Court | C. Shannon Bacon | [8] | 2019–present | 2022–2024 | 2026 |
7 | Washington | Washington Supreme Court | Helen Whitener | [9] | 2020–present | – | 2039 |
8 | California | Supreme Court of California | Martin Jenkins | [10] | 2020–present | – | 2034 |
9 | New York | New York State Court of Appeals | Anthony Cannataro | [11] | 2021–present | 2022–2023 | 2035 |
10 | California | Supreme Court of California | Kelli Evans | [12] | 2023–present | – | 2026 |
11 | Massachusetts | Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | Gabrielle Wolohojian | [13] | 2024–present | – | 2030 |
Order | State | Court | Justice | Ref | Service as justice |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oregon | Oregon Supreme Court | Rives Kistler | [1] | 2003–2018 |
2 | Oregon | Oregon Supreme Court | Virginia Linder | [14] | 2007–2016 |
3 | Massachusetts | Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | Barbara Lenk | [15] | 2011–2020 |
4 | New York | New York State Court of Appeals | Paul Feinman | [16] | 2017–2021 |
5 | Vermont | Vermont Supreme Court | Beth Robinson | [17] | 2011–2021 |
6 | Oregon | Oregon Supreme Court | Lynn Nakamoto | [18] | 2016–2021 |
7 | Massachusetts | Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | Elspeth B. Cypher | [19] | 2017–2024 |
8 | Minnesota | Minnesota Supreme Court | Margaret Chutich | [20] | 2016–2024 |
Order | Territory | Court | Justice | Ref | Service as justice | As chief justice |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Guam | Supreme Court of Guam | Benjamin Cruz | [2] | 1997–2001 | 1999–2001 |
2 | Puerto Rico | Supreme Court of Puerto Rico | Maite Oronoz Rodríguez | [21] | 2014–2016 | 2016–present |
Benjamin Joseph Franquez "B. J." Cruz is a Chamorro lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as the Speaker of the 34th Guam Legislature from 2017 to 2018 and as Vice Speaker from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Guam Legislature from 2005 to 2007 and again from 2008 to 2018. He was Chief Justice of the Guam Supreme Court from 1999 to 2001. In September 2018, Cruz was elected to serve as Public Auditor of Guam.
Martin Joseph Jenkins is an American attorney and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California. He was previously a justice of the California Court of Appeal for the First District, located in San Francisco, and a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Virginia Lynn Linder is an American judge from Oregon who served as the 99th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from January 2007 until January 2016. She served on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 1997 until her election to the state's Supreme Court in the 2006, an electoral campaign in which she defeated former Labor Commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Roberts.
Monica Marie Márquez is the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. Previously a deputy Colorado attorney general, she was appointed by Governor Bill Ritter to the Supreme Court in 2010 to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey. She was sworn in on December 10, 2010.
Victoria Kolakowski is an American lawyer who serves as a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court since January 2011. Kolakowski is the first openly transgender person to serve as a trial court judge of general jurisdiction in the United States, the first elected to a judgeship, and the first to serve as any type of judge in California..
Mary Isabel Yu is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court since 2014. She served as a judge of the King County Superior Court from 2000 to 2014. She is the state's first openly gay, Asian American, and Latina justice.
James Paul Oetken, known professionally as J. Paul Oetken, is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He is the first openly gay man to be confirmed as an Article III judge.
Barbara A. Lenk is an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. On April 4, 2011, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick nominated her to that position and she was confirmed by the Governor's Council on May 4, 2011. She took the oath of office on June 8, 2011.
Margaret Helen Chutich is an American lawyer and judge who served as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 2016 to 2024. She was appointed by Governor Mark Dayton. She previously served as a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
This article addresses the history of gay men in the United States. Unless otherwise noted, the members of same-sex male couples discussed here are not known to be gay, but they are mentioned as part of discussing the practice of male homosexuality—that is, same-sex male sexual and romantic behavior.
Maite Oronoz Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican jurist who currently serves as the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico since 2016. Oronoz Rodríguez is Puerto Rico's first openly gay chief justice.
Lynn R. Nakamoto is an American judge who is a former justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. She was appointed to the court by Governor Kate Brown, and previously served on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 2011 to 2016.
Paul George Feinman was an American attorney who served as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, from June 2017 to March 2021.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of African ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Africa, the Americas and Europe and in the global African diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked.
Elspeth B. Cypher is a former justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts who served from 2017 to 2024. She is also a former justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, where she served from 2000 to 2017.
Anthony Cannataro is an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals, serving since September 1, 2022. He has served as an associate judge of the same court since his 2021 appointment by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cannataro previously served as the chief administrative judge of the New York City Civil Court from 2018 to 2021 and as a judge on various New York City courts from 2012 to 2021.
Kelli Evans is an American lawyer who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California. She previously served as a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court.