Deborah Batts, first openly gay federal judge, dies at 72.

February 5, 2020 compassq 5 THINGS TO KNOW, HEROES, HEROES & HISTORY, NEWS, US NEWS Comments Off on Deborah Batts, first openly gay federal judge, dies at 72.
Only one other Black lesbian has become a federal judge since Batts’s appointment in the mid-'90s. (Image: Sam Hollenshead - NYU Photo Bureau)

U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts, the first openly gay federal judge in the nation, has died at age 72.

Batts, who was also the first African-American faculty member at Fordham University Law School, died in her sleep Sunday, according to a…