Out Lesbian Appeals Court Judge Highlights Marriage Work

The state's first lesbian appeals court judge cautioned against stereotypes and used her first speech since being appointed to the bench to talk about her prior work on same-sex marriage at a recent dinner in Oakland.

Justice Therese Stewart, who sits on the California Courts of Appeal, 1st District, was the keynote speaker at the Women Lawyers of Alameda County's annual judges' dinner Thursday, October 16 at Scott's Seafood Restaurant in Jack London Square.

Stewart, 57, said that when she was hired as San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera's chief deputy, she wasn't expecting to work a lot on LGBT issues because the city had been in the forefront on LGBT rights cases "for a very long time." In the late 1990s, during the city's legal fight over the equal benefits ordinance, which requires city contractors to offer the same benefits it offers to employees' spouses to employees' domestic partners, Stewart helped defend the law pro bono while she was at Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk and Rabkin PC.

"What I didn't see coming," she said, was that the city "doesn't limit itself to what it can do."

In February 2004, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, "despite state law saying otherwise," Stewart said.

From that point on, Stewart was one of the key litigators in the city's legal battle over marriage equality. That culminated last June, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a technicality that nullified Proposition 8, California's same-sex marriage ban. Gay and lesbian couples began marrying in the Golden State a couple days after the court's decision.

"We went from outlaws to in-laws in the space of a day," Stewart quipped.

In recent weeks, Stewart noted, the number of states legalizing same-sex marriage has increased dramatically, as federal courts strike down state marriage bans. But she noted that a recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case that overturned marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada relied on a sex discrimination case.

Marriage bans, Stewart said, are based on gender stereotypes, which carry over into the larger society.

"It drives me crazy that you can't find girls clothes without hearts and princesses or boys clothes without trucks and primary colors," Stewart said, referring to clothing for babies and toddlers.

She said that her wife, attorney Carole Scagnetti, upset her mother when she was little and had a friend cut her long hair short, like a boy's.

To Stewart, society is more tolerant of girls being tomboys than boys being effeminate.

As an example, she cited the 2008 Yes on Prop 8 campaign, when ads played to specific genders and traditional parenting models. And she mentioned the "real men and boys don't cry" stereotype that can lead to bullying.

"We all have stereotypes, but what's important is what we do with them," Steward said.

In introducing Stewart, lesbian Alameda County Commissioner Elizabeth Hendrickson pointed to Stewart's "stellar" resume and noted that both of them served on the board of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom back in the 1980s. When Hendrickson first became a court commissioner, she and now-retired gay Judge Hugh Walker "held down the LGBT contingent" on the Alameda County bench, she said to laughter in the audience.

It was significant that Governor Jerry Brown nominated Stewart - and elevated gay appeal court Justice James Humes - the Friday of Pride weekend, Hendrickson said.

"That wasn't an accident," she added.

And Hendrickson grew somber when she noted that many of the gay men who helped start gay legal organizations like BALIF died during the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

"You have to have your own compass," Hendrickson said, referring to guiding principles. "You're going to be okay with her on the Court of Appeal. She has that compass, which many of us do in this room for other reasons."

Honorees

Paula Rasmussen, a member of the WLAC board and master of ceremonies, presented several awards to judges and attorneys. New Alameda County Superior Court Judges Ursula Jones Dickson and Alison Tucher received incoming jurist recognition, while Judge Joan Cartwirght was recognized for her 23 years on the Alameda County bench and her retirement earlier this year.

Alameda County Superior Court Judges Gail Brewster Bereola and Yolanda Northridge were honored as Women Jurists of Distinction. Attorneys Margaret Gannon, Aundrea Brown, and Lise Pearlman were recognized as Women Lawyers of Distinction. Finally, attorney Alice Beasley, who retired seven years ago, received the Velvet Hammer Award.