Judge Larson
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has appointed a second openly LGBT judge to the bench. Jerry Larson, a longtime lawyer for the City of Akron, took his seat Monday on the Akron Municipal Court. Although The Advocate covered his appointment and noted that he is openly gay, the Akron Beacon Journal left out that fact in its report.
Strickland’s news release does not stating that he’s gay but notes at one point that Larson “serves on the steering committee of the Gay Community Endowment Fund of Akron Community Foundation.” A “Don’t Tell, Just Imply” policy?
Regardless, it’s good to know that being openly LGBT is not a disqualification for judicial appointment in the Strickland Administration. Far from the inane and immature implication of others, this was not a situation in which “one’s qualifications and legal expertise [were] reduced to a discussion of unusual sexual proclivities.” Larson has a lengthy history with the city, having worked for the Akron Law Department for 17 years — first as an assistant director of law, then as the police legal advisor and most recently as an assistant prosecutor.
Sorry, but some of us don’t mind — and, in fact, like — the fact that judges in Ohio appointed under Strickland are more accurately representing the people they serve.
Strickland previously had named Judge Mary Wiseman, who is openly lesbian, to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.
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Chris Geidner is the senior political writer at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
I was wondering whether more openly LGBT judges have been appointed or elected? I know, for example that both Judge Arthur Young and his long-time partner were judges — until Young retired and became a tv judge — and that they weren’t the first, but I think they were elected, rather than appointed.
(Speaking of Judge Young, I don’t know if you’ve sen his show, but I think he probably is doing more good in his current role, just by getting a lot of housewives and others used to a gay man ‘coming into their living room’ every day. And his syndicators seem to think his gayness is a positive, and the regular opening of his show plays it up the way Judge Melian’s opening plays off her ‘hotness. *sigh*’)