Welcome to The Faces of Justice report, a series that will explore the professional and personal diversity of our state courts by uplifting state court judges of various personal and professional backgrounds. Each report belongs to the Faces of Justice series, but is meant to serve as a standalone report that will examine the representation of the community it features. This report highlights the presence of LGBTQ+ justices on 12 state supreme court benches across the nation, exploring the backgrounds of the LGBTQ+ justices who serve or have served on each of these state supreme courts.
Only 12 states (24%) have had an LGBTQ+ justice on their state’s supreme court (OR, CO, MA, VT, HI, CT, WA, MN, NV, NY, NM, and CA), while 38 states (76%) have never had an LGBTQ+ justice serve on their supreme court bench.
We must acknowledge that this report can only highlight members of the community who were or are able to live and openly identify as LGBTQ+. Thus, there is a high likelihood that many other LGBTQ+ justices have served on state supreme court benches throughout history but were not able to publicly identify as members of the community.