KATHY POSNER JUDGES GAY CHICAGO JUDGES

****
HERE COMES THE JUDGE
AND
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT!
****

Kathy Posner

On July 31st I wrote a story, LBGT CITY CONTRACT SET-ASIDES; FOR OR AGAINST? The blog dealt with Mayor Daley and his support of a city effort to give preferential treatment of city contracts to businesses owned by gays and lesbians. Since I am not a lesbian, I was afraid anything I would write would sound discriminatory and biased. Thankfully, because of a great column by Greg Hines in Crain’s (Hines is gay); I was finally able to articulate what I wanted to say through his words. In 1994, Thomas Chiola was elected as Cook County’s first openly gay judge. In a Chicago Tribune article Sunday, Chiola said "I took an oath when I became a judge to apply the law the best I can determine and how that relates to the facts in front of me." The story also told us that Chiola said that no matter their background or beliefs, judges must rule based on the law and the facts of the case.Chiola is no longer the only gay judge serving on the bench. With 15 gay judges, Cook County has one of the highest concentrations of openly gay or lesbian judges in the country. According to the story, later this month, Norene Love will take a new assignment in Maywood, becoming, as far as other judges can tell, the first openly gay or lesbian judge to preside over a Cook County felony courtroom.If judges are supposed to make rulings based on the law and the facts in front of them, why does it matter if a judge is gay or heterosexual? Why did a group of gay judges feel it necessary to form the Alliance of Illinois Judges? The Alliance says one of its initiatives is to lobby other circuit judges for the appointment of more gays and lesbians as associate judges.Alliance members said they believe judges should come from a variety of backgrounds, so that all elements of society feel they are represented in the judicial system. Again, if rulings are based on the law and not personal preferences or background, why aren’t we electing and appointing judges based solely on their knowledge of the law and not by whom they are sleeping with, the color of their skin, their ethnic background or their religion? The Alliance of Illinois Judges is one of only a few such organizations in the country. Michael Sonberg, a New York Criminal Court judge who helped launch a group there in the early 1990s, said there are clusters of openly gay or lesbian judges in a few major cities and one openly gay federal judge in the country. If education and knowledge of the law is what is important to fulfill one’s role as a judge, I don’t understand why being gay or not should make a difference in determine one’s ability to serve as a jurist. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream was that man would not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character and Lyndon Johnson said, “Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact." The same statements can be changed to reflect attitudes towards gays and lesbians. Since all people should be viewed equally, I think forming groups that sets one apart creates a divisive and discordant atmosphere. We cannot be equal if we keep proclaiming our differences.
Click Here For More Form Kathy Posner....