Under a new system for tracking the sexual orientation and gender identity of judges in California, those who are transgender are being obscured in the annual reports. For the second year in a row, the category for transgender justices is blank even though there are two known such justices serving on superior courts in the state.
As the Bay Area Reporter first noted last year, the annual reports now include a category listed as "More Than One SO/GI," which is short for sexual orientation and gender identity. A footnote explains it is for judges who choose more than a single SOGI indicator and gives examples as someone reporting they are trans and lesbian or trans and heterosexual.
The 2025 report using data through 2024 lists there being zero transgender judges and four in the new combined category. However, its name is transposed on page two of the report and listed as "More Than One GI/SO."
The other two people could be nonbinary rather than trans, as the nonbinary category is also listed as being zero. But it remains unclear, as the exact SOGI information for the quartet of judges isn't listed.
"I find it disappointing that the changes they have made have essentially rendered transgender members of the bench here in California invisible" said Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, who had not seen the 2025 report until the Bay Area Reporter shared it with her Friday. "There is nothing in the report that says that we are transgender."
The omission of the trans judges also shows up when using a tool to explore the judicial demographic data at a new website created for the annual reports. The information is reported out each year on March 1, with the SOGI data being required since 2011, but was released early this year since that date falls on a Saturday.
When one clicks on the tab for having the SOGI data show up on the graph and then selects "transgender" from the options found in a menu to the left, a blue line appears charting how in 2012 the first transgender judge is recorded then jumps up to two in 2023 but then falls back to zero. When a user hovers over the line, a box pops up that says there were no transgender judges in either 2024 or 2025.
Kolakowski, the wife of B.A.R. news editor Cynthia Laird, had won election in 2010 to her seat on the East Bay bench, becoming the first trans person elected to a judicial position. Twelve years later Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Judge Andi Mudryk to the Sacramento County Superior Court, accounting for the two trans judges that were first recorded with the release of the 2023 demographic report for the state's judiciary.
"The report and website obscure the existence of the transgender members of the bench here," said Kolakowski. "I know it is not intentional, but nevertheless, it is something that needs to be corrected, and that is the problem with trying to categorize everything ... into conflating sexual orientation and gender."
Asked by the B.A.R. about the inaccuracies in how the data on transgender judges is being presented, Judicial Council of California spokesperson Blaine Corren highlighted the footnote explaining why a judge's response would end up in the "More Than One SO/GI" column on the report.
"The council reported the data this way so one responder doesn't appear in more than one category, which would provide a false number of the total number of people who responded to this section of the survey," explained Corren. "The council was also conscious of how similar surveys and reporting for these categories is being done by other entities. However, the council is constantly examining how it conducts and reports on its surveys and can make revisions to those practices if appropriate."
Corren also said the council would be adding language to the website with the demographic judicial data that responding to the questionnaire is voluntary for judges, and the data presented only reflects the responses they provided.
A spokesperson for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which tracks the judicial diversity of the federal bench, told the B.A.R. Friday it would be unable to comment on the reporting out of demographic data on California state judges. It suggested reaching out to statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California, spokespeople for which did not immediately respond to the B.A.R.'s request for comment.
Kolakowski serves on the Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness for the state courts, which she noted deals with increasing the diversity of the California bench. She told the B.A.R. she had not been asked to provide guidance or suggestions prior to the change made in how the SOGI data for judges would be reported out.
"The problem here is trying to put in one chart sexual orientation and gender identity, and they are two separate things," said Kolakowski. "People have their own sexual orientation and their own gender identity. They don't always have to be linked."
Unlike with the 2024 report, which completely omitted Kolakowski from the data, she appears to be listed in the 2025 report that now has one judge from Alameda denoted in the "More than One SO/GI" column on Page 13 where the breakdown of the LGBTQ judges by the state's 58 trial courts begins. The information is reported anonymously, so the names of individual judges and how they identify under the SOGI categories is not disclosed.
Once again one judge is listed under the double SOGI category for the Sacramento court, believed to account for Mudryk. The other two are listed as serving on the superior courts in El Dorado and Orange counties, similar to last year.
Latest report continues undercount of out judges
The 2025 report also counts there being seven bisexual judges, 48 gay jurists, and 32 lesbian members of the bench. There were 1,326 heterosexual judges. Those who did not answer the SOGI questions numbered 249.
Due to judges not filing out the information or not having been seated in time for their demographic data to be counted, the yearly reports routinely undercount how many LGBTQ judges there are on the state bench, the B.A.R. has consistently found.
The 2025 report, which includes 89 LGBTQ judges, is no exception. Based on a count kept by the B.A.R. there were at least 94 LGBTQ judges as of December 31, 2024.
The latest report does include the two out justices on the California Supreme Court – Kelli Evans, a queer woman, and Martin Jenkins, a gay man. As there is no queer category in the report, Evans is listed as a lesbian.
But it once again omits one lesbian and one gay man from its count of the state's LGBTQ appellate court members. While Presiding Justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal's Division Two Therese Stewart is counted, Presiding Justice of the 3rd District Court of Appeal Laurie M. Earl is not listed.
The same goes for the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which is listed as having only one gay member. Yet Associate Justice Luis A. Lavin serves on it, and Gonzalo Martinez is presiding justice of the 2nd District Court of Appeal's Division Seven.
The other two gay appellate court members are reflected in the 2025 report. David Rubin sits on the 4th District Court of Appeal's Division One, while Jim Humes is the presiding justice for the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Once again just 18 trial courts reported having at least one LGBTQ judge in 2024. Ten reported having two or fewer LGBTQ members on its bench.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court continues to have the most out jurists of any county court, with 27 LGBTQ judges serving on it as of December 31 based on the latest data. It marks a decrease of three from last year's report.
The benches in Alameda and San Diego counties had the second-highest number at 10 each. The East Bay court retains the distinction of having the most LGBTQ judges of any county in Northern California, according to the 2024 survey data, with San Francisco reporting seven LGBTQ members on its bench.
The Orange County Superior Court continues to have the fourth-highest number of LGBTQ jurists at six. There remain four LGBTQ judges on the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
The superior court in San Bernardino and Contra Costa counties each have three LGBTQ judges per the latest report. It also continues to list two in Sonoma and San Mateo counties.
(The 2025 report continues to miscount the number of LGBTQ judges in the South Bay, which was listed as being six. Yet the website Queer Silicon Valley continues to state there are at least nine out members on the bench in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.)
In the rest of the nine-county Bay Area region, the superior courts in Marin, Napa, and Solano counties continue to have no LGBTQ judges on their benches per the 2025 judicial demographic data.
San Joaquin County continues to have two bisexual trial court judges, according to the latest report. The local benches in El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Kings, Riverside, Sacramento, and Santa Cruz counties continue to each have one LGBTQ judge, per the latest data.
The Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation 2024 Statewide Demographics Report, also released early ahead of its normal March 1 publication, revealed it had reviewed 185 candidates' qualifications for judicial office last year. Two were bisexual, three were lesbian, three were gay, and the sexual orientation of seven were unknown.
Four people were listed as "unknown" in terms of their gender identity. The commission found one lesbian and one gay applicant to be exceptionally well qualified, and the six other LGB applicants to be well qualified.
Two of the applicants with unknown sexual orientations were exceptionally well qualified, three were well qualified, one was qualified, and the other was deemed not qualified by the review panel. Of those with unknown gender information, three were found to be well qualified and the other to be qualified.
Newsom's office has yet to release his judicial appointments data for 2024.
Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected]
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