Kathryn Hens-Greco, the first attorney...

Kathryn Hens-Greco, the first attorney to seek and obtain same-sex partner adoption in Allegheny County, was elected to the office of Judge of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday, November 8, 2005. She received a total of 129,496 votes.

The GLBT community has a wonderful ally in Kathryn Hens-Greco. For many years, she has worked on behalf of GLBT clients. In 1991, Kathryn represented the Gay and Lesbian Community Center (GLCC) before the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission in a landlord-tenant discrimination dispute. The landlord “cited the fear of spreading AIDS in the public bathroom used by other business tenants.” Thanks to Kathryn’s advocacy, the GLCC prevailed. She was among the first to challenge funeral directors who refused to prepare and bury bodies of AIDS victims and has been a longtime volunteer member of the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force Legal Committee.

She was the first to represent a lesbian mother in a guardianship proceeding to gain some rights to her partner’s child. In 1994, she began her groundbreaking work on same-sex second-parent adoptions. In the late nineties, she played an instrumental role in the legal battle for statewide adoption rights, winning second- parent adoption rights for families across Pennsylvania.

She has always been committed to justice. Christine Biancheria, civil rights attorney, said: "She [didn’t run] for judge to advance her career, but rather to be of greater and more effective assistance. She believes in the issues and believes in the families and individuals that she tries to serve.”

In 2001, Kathryn was honored by the Thomas Merton Center for her work in the area of second-parent adoptions. She has the highest recommendation by the Allegheny County Bar Association Judiciary Committee, a group of twenty-four attorneys from Allegheny County who evaluate the experience, skills, temperament, and knowledge of a judicial candidate.

To learn more about Kathryn Hens-Greco, check out her Web site at www.hensgreco4judge.com.

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