LGBTQ Chief Justices
From QueerBio.com
We have identifies several LGBTQ lawyers who have been appointed Justices or Chief Justice of their country's highest court level. This may be their country's Supreme Court, High Court, Constitutional Court, or other legal institution.
They each have fascinating biographies. For example, do you know:
- the Chief Justice in South Africa who was the leading individual behind that country's Charter of Rights on HIV/AIDS and who, himself, is living with AIDS?
- the first lesbian member of the Australia High Court, or the German Constitutional Court?
- the first gay member and head of the High Chancery Division of the High Court of England and Wales?
In 1993, the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Judges (IALGBTJ) was formed by 25 judges as an LGBTQ interest group. The objectives of the Association, adopted at that meeting, are:
- To provide an opportunity for judicial officers to meet and exchange views and to promote education among its members and among the general public on legal and judicial issues related to the gay and lesbian community.
- To increase the visibility of lesbian and gay judicial officers so as to serve as role models for other lesbian and gay people and to bring to the attention of the general public the prominence of these judicial officers.
- To aid in ensuring the equal treatment of all persons who appear in a courtroom, as a litigant, attorney, juror, staff person in any other capacity.
- To coordinate the sharing of information between lesbian and gay judicial officers and others in the gay community or the general community.
- To serve as a resource for other lesbians and gay men who are interested in seeking judicial office.
The LGBTQ justices hail from Australia, Germany, Guam, New Zealand, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Great Britain:
- Susanne Baer, Germany
- Virginia Bell, Australia
- Edwin Cameron, South Africa
- Benjamin Cruz, Guam
- Terence Etherton, Great Britain
- Adrian Fulford, Great Britain
- Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain
- Michael Kirby, Australia
- Matthew Muir, New Zealand
- Maite Oronoz Rodriguez, Puerto Rico
