Dana Nessel

Photo by David Trumpie

Before she became Michigan’s first openly-LGBTQ person elected to statewide office last November, Attorney General Dana Nessel had established herself as a progressive litigator of LGBTQ rights. Her work led the way for non-biological same-sex parents to have custodial rights and adoption privileges of children from the marriage. In 2012, she was co-counselor in DeBoer v. Snyder, a case that challenged bans on both adoptions and marriage for same-sex couples within the state, and that ould later be merged with similar cases into the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges. Then, in 2016, she founded the Fair Michigan Justice Project, an effort to prosecute hate crimes committed against LGBTQ individuals. Her election this past November was a highlight for anyone invested in saving the hard-fought gains that the LGBTQ community has made in the past decade, a fact that wasn’t lost on Nessel, who recognizes the critical role that attorneys general play in preserving the rights of the citizens they serve. “Even though sometimes it may seem as if your federal government or your state officials are not concerned with your welfare,” she says, “there are people all around this nation who are fighting back. There are attorneys general, like myself, spread throughout the nation who are determined to ensure equal justice for LGBT Americans and for all people in our country.” —RK