The World's First Openly Gay (and HIV+) Supreme Court Justice

Many blogs are picking up a story first reported by intrepid lesbian law professor blogger Nan Hunter about Justice Edwin Cameron being appointed to the highest court in South Africa:

In a genuinely pathbreaking act, South African President Mothlanthe has appointed Edwin Cameron, a justice on the Supreme Court of Appeal, as a judge of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Judge Cameron becomes the first openly gay man or woman ever appointed to a nation's highest court. HT to Robert Wintemute, who noted in an e/mail that Justice Michael Kirby of Australia has served as an openly gay member of that country's highest court, but was not out when he was appointed.

A former Rhodes Scholar who became a human rights lawyer, Judge Cameron is the co-author of several books, including Witness to AIDS, a memoir about his experiences as a person living with AIDS, and Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa. During his time on the Court of Appeal, he has been a leader in developing that nation's civil rights and liberties jurisprudence.

Cameron is 55 years old and has been a hero of mine for years. Congratulations!