The New York State Unified Court System has roughly 1200 judges (we’re not including Federal judges in that number, which is another 150-200). Of the 1200, 22 are openly gay — which is a little less than two percent.

The five boroughs have roughly half of the State’s 1200 judges. All but one of the 22 openly gay judges work in New York City, making their share of the bench around 3.5%. Here’s the breakdown by borough:

Manhattan    13

Brooklyn        5

Bronx             3

Queens          0

Staten Island  0

Finding reliable statistics on the number of New Yorkers who are gay or lesbian is difficult. The 2000 census tried to calculate it, and reported that 1.3% of New York State’s couples were of the same sex (no word from them on non-couples). Here are the numbers for the five boroughs:

Manhattan      4.3%

Brooklyn        1.8%

Bronx             1.7%

Queens          1.3%

Staten Island  1.0%

These figures are conservative. It is probable that the census significantly undercounted the gay and lesbian population because the survey relied on self-reporting. At the same time, the LexMetrics count of the number of gay and lesbian judges also relied on self-reporting.

LexMetrics searched for better data but couldn't find anything specific for New York. Nationwide exit polls during the 2000 election indicated the number of voters identifying themselves as gay was 4% (a self-reporting sample). A 1994 University of Chicago study estimated that 2.6% of American men and 1.1% of women were gay (the numbers were considerably higher in central cities).

Manhattan has roughly 150 judges from the New York state system. Thirteen (around 8-9%) are openly gay or lesbian, meaning the bench does reflect the diversity of the community in this area. The same can be said for the four outer boroughs (8 out of 450, which is roughly 1.5-2.0%).

As stated earlier, the state’s bench as a whole somewhat reflects the gay and lesbian communities, but New York City is doing almost all of the contributing. New York City had 56% of the state’s same-sex couples, but 95% of its openly gay and lesbian judges.

Part of the push by the gay and lesbian communities to get more judges on the bench includes the goal of getting some into the higher courts, where their role in shaping the law would be more pronounced. There are approximately 70 appellate judges in New York. None are openly gay or lesbian.

Source for NYS Judge data: New York State Unified Court System

Source for Gay and Lesbian judge data: Hon. Michael Sonberg

Source for Census data: www.gaydemographics.org

Source for 2000 exit poll data:  www.cnn.com

Source for 1994 U. of Chicago study: “Counting Gay New York”, Gotham Gazette, July, 1, 2001.