International Law

As The Awl points out, while it may be interesting (if irrelevant) that the judge ruling on the Prop. 8 trial, Vaughn Walker, is gay, it is more remarkable that Walker is apparently just one of two homosexual federal judges in the U.S.

The Awl: Out of more than 1,000 federal judges in the country, there are only two that are known to be gay: Vaughn, and a federal trial court judge in Manhattan, Deborah Batts. Using the most conservative estimates of their share of the population (not to mention their share of the legal population!), gays are underrepresented on the federal bench by, at least, the dozens.

We're not sure exactly how The Awl determined who was "known to be gay" -- assumedly there are more judges like Walker who it is widely know they are gay, but it has just never been at issue. But, either way, these numbers are shockingly low.

Although this piece is obviously written from an American perspective, the same question - "where are all the gay judges?" - could equally be asked in Australia. Apart from the now retired Justice Kirby, and his replacement on the High Court, Justice Virginia Bell, Australia has not seen many (openly) gay judges.

The question then becomes, are gay lawyers overlooked for judicial appointment? Or are most gay lawyers not out? Given how conservative the legal profession is in Australia, I tend to think the latter is more likely to be the reason there are so few openly gay judges.

Of course, maybe there are many more gay judges in Australia than I realise. Let me know if you know of other gay judges, or if you think there is some other explanation for their under-representation on the bench.