Collection context
Summary
Background
- Scope and content:
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This collection contains materials related to Hitchens’ professional career prior to her election as San Francisco Superior Court judge in 1990. These include law course materials, subject files, reports, conference and board materials, newsletters, publications, a small amount of correspondence, and audiotapes related to LGBT civil rights issues. Prominent topics include AIDS and lesbian parenting; organizations represented include Lambda Legal Defense Fund, National Center for Lesbian Rights (formerly the Lesbian Rights Project), and the National Education Foundation for Individual Rights. GSSO Linked Terms: http://2Fpurl.obolibrary.org/obo/LifO_0000064; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000381; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_003201
- Biographical / historical:
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Donna Hitchens was the United States’ first openly lesbian elected judge and the founder of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). Hitchens graduated from the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1977, and founded the organization that became the NCLR immediately afterward. Initially focused solely on issues of concern to lesbians – including custody, adoption, and employment – it now represents gay, bisexual, and transgender clients as well. In 1990, Hitchens was elected to the San Francisco Superior Court, and in 2002 she became its Presiding Judge. She retired from the bench in 2010.
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Collection is open for research.
- Preferred citation:
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Donna Hitchens papers. GLBT Historical Society
- Location of this collection:
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989 Market Street, Lower LevelSan Francisco, CA 94103, US
- Contact:
- (415) 777-5455