Pat Logue, Lambda Legal attorney who won landmark cases, has died

Pat Logue, who as a Lambda Legal attorney who worked on groundbreaking cases involving LGBTQ+ youth, sodomy laws, and “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and later became a judge, has died.

Logue died last week, according to a Lambda Legal press release. It did not state a cause of death.

“Pat Logue was a brilliant lawyer, a trailblazing jurist, and a hero to the LGBTQ community,” the release states. “Pat’s legacy includes numerous landmark cases she litigated over her 14 years as a lawyer with Lambda Legal that transformed the lives of LGBTQ people nationwide. She will be greatly missed.”

Logue opened Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office, located in Chicago, in 1993 as its managing attorney. She had previously worked for the law firm of Jenner & Block and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest after graduating from Brown University and Northwestern University School of Law. She had been a member of Lambda Legal’s board for five years before joining the staff.

During her time at Lambda Legal, she held various positions, including interim legal director and director of constitutional litigation.

In 1996, together with fellow Lambda Legal attorney David Buckel and Skadden Arps lawyer David Springer, she won a major victory in the case of Jamie Nabozny, a gay youth who had been brutally bullied and assaulted at his high school in Wisconsin. School officials had claimed the abuse was his fault for being gay. Nabozny was awarded nearly $1 million, “and the case put school districts nationwide on notice for the first time that they are responsible for protecting students from bullying based on who they are,” the release notes.

She worked with a team headed by Paul Smith of Jenner & Block in Lawrence v. Texas, which went to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in the 2003 ruling striking down sodomy laws. “Paul later reflected that Pat was his toughest and most effective coach as he prepared to argue the case before the United States Supreme Court,” according to the Lambda Legal release.

Logue also won several cases involving military members discharged because of DADT, the ban on transgender service members, and the ban on military service by people with HIV, and numerous cases on the rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents. “It is no exaggeration to say that because of Pat’s work, countless thousands of children around the country have grown up knowing — and being loved by — the adults who brought them into their families as parents,” the release says.

In 2007, she became a judge in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, serving in the Domestic Relations Division. As a judge, she performed marriage ceremonies for many same-sex couples.

Logue received numerous honors, including the National Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association’s Dan Bradley Award, the highest honor given to leaders in the LGBTQ+ legal community; the American Constitution Society Chicago Chapter’s Abner Mikva Legal Legends Award; and the Alliance of Illinois Judges’ From Stonewall to Lawrence Award and its Community Leadership Award. She was inducted into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame in 2003.

Survivors include her wife, Marcia Festen; their daughters, Ruby and Ella, and granddaughter, Hazel; four siblings; and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held in Chicago in June, and donations may be made to Lambda Legal or the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.

“Lambda Legal and the LGBTQ+ community have lost a giant, and while we mourn her passing, we also express our tremendous gratitude for her life of service to our community,” the release states.