An LGBTQ History Month conversation with lawyer and NCLR co-founder Donna Hitchens, the first openly lesbian person to be elected to a judgeship in the U.S. 

The National Center for LGBTQ Rights started as the Lesbian Rights Project in 1977 by a law student. That law student was Donna Hitchens who would later go on to become the first openly lesbian judge elected to the bench in the United States. This is the story of her early days of activism, why she started NCLR, and the community that supported her along the way.  

So how did it all begin? 

I started NCLR when I was in my last year of law school. I was familiar with a couple of public interest law firms that existed during that time. 

But they were all male lawyers focused on combatting the criminalization of being gay through anti-sodomy court cases. Nobody was addressing issues that primarily affected lesbians, such as the loss of custody or visitation rights because of sexual orientation. And that was really what I wanted to do. So, I applied for my first grant while I was still in law school and got $7,500. 

As soon as I passed the bar exam that summer, I opened the doors as a project of Equal Rights Advocates, a law firm I worked for during law school that focused on sex discrimination. 

And then we went to the board of directors and they approved it, which was really quite courageous in those days because there was a lot of lesbian baiting going on. 

How did the Lesbian Rights Project grow into NCLR?  

I brought Roberta Achterberg on board, who is the first openly LGBTQ person to go through a U.S. Senate confirmation process. Roberta is the one who really took the organization national. It started growing from the inside—and then BOOM. You know, we were getting requests from all over the country. I had written a lesbian mother litigation manual that we sent out to warriors in other states. We were doing some national work, but it wasn’t really as extensive as it has become. And now, I mean, NCLR is, in my opinion, the best leader in the civil rights movement for LGBT people. And Imani is really, truly wonderful. 

Okay, let’s go back. Can you introduce yourself? What would you tell people if you were just first meeting them?   

Well, my name is Donna. I’ll be 77 years old this year. I share my life andin my home with my dearly beloved Nancy. We’ve been together for 48 years. We have two adult children, Kate, who’s 41, and Megan, who’s will be 39 next month, and two wonderful, wonderful grandchildren. A grandson who is four and a granddaughter who’s seven months. 

What was your coming out story like?  

It was actually a woman I knew in college, but we had not been particularly close. And then later on, I was the Associate Dean of Students at the University of Maine. And I hired her for a position, and we became much closer. She had already been with a woman, but I had not. And about six months later, we figured out that we were very, very attracted to each other and acted on it. 

What kind of activism did you do before law school that led you to want to do law?

Well, when I was the Associate Dean, I was in a case conference one day and a young woman, one of the men at the college at the university, tried to run her over with a car. And we’re sitting at a case conference. And one of the men, of course, said, well, what did she do to provoke him? And that really, really, really kicked me off. Blaming the victim. At the time, mostly what I was doing then was sort of more individual counseling and working with resident students. But that’s when I decided I wanted to have a greater impact. So that’s when I decided to go to law school and hopefully practice civil rights law.  

Did you personally experience any discrimination as a lesbian that further motivated you to start what was then known as the Lesbian Rights Project? 

Candidly, I experienced much more discrimination as a woman. So, you know, this was 1977, and things were not exactly hospitable to lesbians and gay men in those days. I mean, the laws were all against us, and people used derogatory terms. And, you know, I was the subject of those. My stepfather told me gay people ought to get the death penalty. I told him, thanks a lot. 

The Lesbian Rights Project was more than just family law. We also did employment cases, public accommodation, and insurance. Although the greatest percentage of our cases were lesbian mother custody cases. 

Why did you see law as a key part of the movement in fighting discrimination against women?  

I just felt like you could accomplish more and hopefully change the law that would affect more people. And that’s what I, in my youthful exuberance, hoped to do.  

I kind of wanted to get a sense of your experience with lesbian community. Did you have any LGBTQ friends or community that you built over the years, whether that’s now or when you were in your 20s? 

Absolutely. When I was in law school, we had founded a somewhat clandestine organization called Lesbians and Law, and we managed to find each other and law schools throughout the Bay Area. And we would get together, you know, at least once a month. It was not more often. And then, you know, as I got older, Nancy and I have developed a lot of very close friendships with other lesbian couples. 

Many of us raised our kids together. It’s always been a backbone of my community.  

That’s beautiful.  

I know you ran for the judiciary in 1990; what was that like?  

Exhausting. And candidly, it wasn’t even my idea. Some friends of mine called me up and urged me to run, because the governor at that time only appointed white male prosecutors to the bench. Everybody said enough already and got me to run. And because of all my experience working with various civil rights organizations, I actually won. Which was surprising because I beat an incumbent. 

 How did you feel when you won?  

Well, I was flabbergasted quite candidly. And you know, I loved my career as a judge. It was, it was really fascinating and never boring. Never the same any two days. It was really a wonderful, wonderful opportunity.  

How long did you serve?  

I was active full time for 20 years, and then when I retired, I would sit by assignment. That is, you know, when a judge was on vacation or out on disability or in a conference, I would go in and sit, and I did that for another ten years. 

What was it like raising a family through all of this?  

We managed to, you know, spend a lot of time with our children. Our oldest daughter, especially, was like, the first kid at their preschool to have same-sex parents, the first kid at her elementary school to have same sex parents, you know. In a way, the kids were really trailblazers as well as us.  And our daughters are both adopted, and we had to go through the courts, obviously. And the Department of Human Services, California Department of Human Services opposed one of our adoptions, but we were successful with the judge.  

What was the process like for that?  

Well, Roberta represented us -so we had the Lesbian Rights Project behind us. It was like a full circle. We were attorneys; we were clients.  

What has been the most profound change you’ve seen within the movement for either LGBTQ rights or women’s rights? 

I think the most profound, although I think we’re under incredible threat right now, is just the changes in all the laws that have affected LGBTQ people. You know, first of all, the domestic partnership, then later marriage, the criminal laws were repealed. Civil rights cases won. Employment cases won. You know, changes in the workplace, changes in the military. It’s just been – I mean in my lifetime it’s been profound. They’re all under threat right now and it’s scary what’s going on especially for trans folks.