List of LGBT state supreme court justices in the United States

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 January 12, 2024^[update], there are 11 openly LGBT state supreme court justices, serving in 10 states.

In U.S. states

Current

Order	State	Court	Justice	Ref	Service as justice	As chief justice
1	Colorado	Colorado Supreme Court	Monica Márquez	[3]	2010–present	–
2	Hawaii	Supreme Court of Hawaii	Sabrina McKenna	[4]	2011–present	–
3	Connecticut	Connecticut Supreme Court	Andrew J. McDonald	[5]	2013–present	–
4	Washington	Washington Supreme Court	Mary Yu	[6]	2014–present	–
5	Minnesota	Minnesota Supreme Court	Margaret Chutich	[7]	2016–present	–
6	Nevada	Supreme Court of Nevada	Lidia S. Stiglich	[8]	2016–present	–
7	New Mexico	New Mexico Supreme Court	C. Shannon Bacon	[9]	2019–present	2022–present
8	Washington	Washington Supreme Court	Helen Whitener	[10]	2020–present	–
9	California	Supreme Court of California	Martin Jenkins	[11]	2020–present	–
10	New York	New York State Court of Appeals	Anthony Cannataro	[12]	2021–present	–
11	California	Supreme Court of California	Kelli Evans	[13]	2023–present	–

Former

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

In U.S. territories

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	[20]	2014–2016	2016–present

See also

• State supreme courts
• List of LGBT jurists in the United States
• List of the first LGBT holders of political offices in the United States

Other topics of interest

• List of African-American jurists
• List of Asian American jurists
• List of Hispanic and Latino American jurists
• List of Jewish American jurists
• List of Native American jurists
• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States

References