Andi Mudryk Appointed As First Openly Transgender Judge To Sacramento Superior Court
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed the first openly transgender judge to the Sacramento County Superior Court.
Andi Mudryk will become the first transgender judge appointed to the bench and the second transgender judge in state history, if confirmed. Victoria Kolakowski was the first openly transgender judge in California after being elected to the bench in Alameda County Superior Court in November 2010.
Mudryk, a Democrat, will fill the position left vacant by retiring Judge Benjamin G. Davidian.
Mudryk, 58, is from Sacramento and served as chief deputy director at the California Department of Rehabilitation since 2020. Before that, she served there as chief counsel from 2018 to 2020, the Governor's Press Office said Friday. From 2006 to 2017, Mudryk worked with non-profit Disability Rights California, the largest disability rights agency in the country. Mudryk herself is is a person with a disability -- brittle bone disease.
Her career has taken her through Losa Angeles, Arizona and Washington, D.C., where she earned a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School.
Mudryk fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Benjamin G. Davidian. She is a Democrat.
Tony Hoang, the executive director of Equality Rights, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, issued a statement on the historic appointment.
"We are thrilled to be celebrating another historic milestone today for California's LGBTQ+ community in Governor Newsom's historic appointment of Andi Mudryk to the Sacramento County Superior Court. A seasoned civil rights advocate, Mudryk brings almost twenty years of experience in disability rights and rehabilitation to the court. As governors and state legislatures across the country attack the trans community, we applaud Governor Newsom's continued commitment to increasing trans representation across appointments and on the bench. California continues to remind the rest of the country that LGBTQ+ voices are essential to achieve full equality."
