Here's to You, Ms. Robinson!

[babylonsister]

http://blog.prospect.org/ej_graff/2011/10/heres-to-you-ms-robinson.html

Here's to You, Ms. Robinson!
Posted 10/21/2011 at 12:52 PM
EJ Graff


In Vermont, the governor has nominated Beth Robinson to take a seat the state’s Supreme Court. Robinson was the prime mover behind the state’s Freedom to Marry movement, and one of three lawyers who brought the groundbreaking state case Baker v. Vermont back in the 1990s. That case led to the state’s then-groundbreaking civil unions--and spurred a national uproar about the imminent descent of locusts, plague, and so forth. Robinson led the movement to hold that victory statewide, and then to upgrade it to full marriage rights a few years after Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to offer full equality.

Like Mary Bonauto, the GLAD lawyer who’s been the architect of New England’s steady sweep of marriage wins (and whose carefully targeted lawsuits will be critical in dismantling DOMA), Beth Robinson has mostly ducked publicity. Here’s a good profile of Robinson. She’s one of the hardworking heroes around the country who’ve made full LGBT equality seem inevitable--and is expected to be easily confirmed. It’s thrilling that she will be on that state’s supreme court.

Side note: According to Denis Dison of the Victory Fund, Robinson will be the sixth out state supreme court justice. He writes, “Massachusetts, Hawaii, Oregon and Colorado also have out lesbians on their Supreme Courts. Oregon also has a gay man. In Oregon, justices are elected statewide.”

[Ian David]

1. I've met her, and she's a really nice lady, too. n/t