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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
“The First Gay High Court Judge" – read by Janice Browne
Edwin Cameron became the first openly-gay person appointed to a nation’s highest court. That happened on December 31, 2008, when then-President Mothlanthe appointed him to South Africa’s Constitutional Court.
Cameron was born in South Africa and became a human rights lawyer. He also authored Witness to AIDS, a memoir about his experiences as a person living with AIDS.
At the time of the appointment, the U.S., by contrast, had only one openly-lesbian federal judge – that being Debbie Batts in the Southern District of New York. There were no openly-gay or lesbian federal judges at the appellate level anywhere in the United States at the time of Cameron’s appointment.
In 1996, Michael Kirby was appointed High Court Justice of Australia, but he wasn’t out publicly until three years later.
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November 30th, 2011
Posted In: Music Shows
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