President Joe Biden has recently nominated Charlotte Sweeney, a Colorado employee rights attorney, to the federal judiciary, and reappointed Sharon Kleinbaum, a New York rabbi, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both are also lesbian moms.
Sweeney is currently a founding partner of employment law firm Sweeney & Bechtold, LLC and treasurer of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. If confirmed as a United States district judge for the District of Colorado, she would be the first openly LGBTQ federal judge in Colorado and the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve as a federal district court judge in any state west of the Mississippi, according to the White House. She has two daughters.
Kleinbaum had previously served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2020. The Commission is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad. Kleinbaum is also spiritual leader of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, where she has served since the height of the AIDS crisis in 1992. She has long been involved in the fight for human rights, including religious freedom, and serves on New York City’s Commission on Human Rights, Mayor de Blasio’s Faith Based Advisory Council, and the boards of the New York Jewish Agenda and the New Israel Fund. She has two grown daughters and is married to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
And although I’m all about celebrating LGBTQ parents doing cool things (this is a parenting blog, after all), I’ll also mention that President Biden has just nominated Beth Robinson, associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She’s not a parent, but if confirmed, would be the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve on any federal circuit court.
Sweeney and Kleinbaum aren’t the first queer parents to be chosen for posts by President Biden. Dr. Rachel Levine is assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate, and the country’s highest-ranking transgender official. She has two grown children. Karine Jean-Pierre is principal deputy press secretary and Pili Tobar is deputy White House communications director; both are lesbian moms in addition to veteran communications professionals. Each has a daughter.
Congratulations to them all!