Monica Marquez: Lesbian Judge for Colorado Supreme Court

While much of the headline news over the struggle for queer equality is devoted to the high-profile national stories, great progress is being made across a broad front at state and local level. This story, of an important judicial appointment in Colorado, is one of many that deserves wider attention:

Relief and skepticism both are greeting Colorado’s next member of the state Supreme Court. Monica Marquez is the first Latina and the first openly gay jurist on the state’s high court.
Marquez was named by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday to fill a vacancy on the court. Marquez is currently deputy Colorado attorney general and is past president of the Colorado Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Bar Association.
A gay state senator tells The Pueblo Chieftain that Marquez’s appointment means racial and sexual preference barriers are no longer there. But a conservative critic of the court tells The Denver Post that he suspects Marquez was picked not because of her merits but to appeal to "special interests."

-Edge Dallas

Gay marriage champion joins Vt. Supreme Court

A woman who pushed for Vermont's ground-breaking civil union and gay marriage laws has been sworn in as the first openly gay member of the state Supreme Court.

Beth Robinson took the oath Monday afternoon. Gov. Peter Shumlin said her story represented striking progress toward equality of gay and lesbian citizens.

Beth Robinson, right, gets a hug from Susan Murray
on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in Montpelier, Vt.

The 46-year-old Robinson was one of the lawyers who represented three couples in a landmark 1999 state Supreme Court decision that prompted the Legislature in 2000 to make Vermont the first state to offer marriage-like rights and benefits to same-sex couples.

She later led Vermont Freedom to Marry, which pushed for and won passage in 2009 of the country's first gay-marriage law that wasn't directly prompted by a court decision.

via: SF Gate