Interviews

1. Early Childhood

2. Being “Half” in Japan

3. Sexual Orientation as a Youth

4. How Title IX Changed Her Life

5. Initial Interest in Law

6. Judge Marie Milks—Her Hero and a Mentor

7. On Being an Asian American Woman in Law

8. Confidence as a young Asian American woman

9. Not coming out at work until 1991

10. Becoming the First LGBTQ Judge to Serve on the Hawaii Supreme Court

11. Impact of Coming Out on Her Family

12. Impact of Coming Out Publicly in the US and Japan

13. Message for Young People

Sabrina Shizue McKenna

(b. 1957) Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

Not coming out at work until 1991

I was not out at work until 1991. I didn't even come out to a lot of my friends because frankly, I was battling my own internalized homophobia, trying not to be gay. And that's, I hope, something that young people now don't have to deal with. So, you know, I was dating some men, but I was also sometimes dating women. But people didn't know that, that part. And but I was battling it.

And it wasn't until I became a law professor in 1991 that I came out. And at that time I didn't really have a steady girlfriend or anything like that. But I came out to some of my colleagues that were law professors. And the reason I came out is because the law changed. In 1991, Hawaii became the third state in the country to prohibit employment discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and candidly, I didn't feel comfortable coming out knowing that I could have been fired until then for being gay.

And so I came out in 1991, two people at my office and then at the law school. And then in 1993, what after I became a judge, you know, I mean, I was, I wasn't announcing anything, but I ended up with my current my my partner with whom I had children. We actually didn't get together uh until like uh 1996.

And so I started bringing her to bar functions and things like that. And, you know, so everybody knew that we were together. And, you know, I didn't hide anything in terms of professionally, but I wasn't really public until 2011 when I was nominated to the Hawaii Supreme Court.

identity LGBTQ+ people sexual orientation

Date: July 14, 2022

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Lana Kobayashi

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association

Interviewee Bio

Sabrina Shizue McKenna was born on October 7, 1957, in Tokyo, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an American father. Being half-Japanese, McKenna struggled with feeling either “too Japanese” or “too white.” Justice McKenna’s life was drastically impacted in 1972, when Title IX was passed. Title IX allowed McKenna to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii and play basketball. During her time at the university, she came to terms with her sexuality.

McKenna believes her sexual orientation might have altered her career path. After graduating from law school and working for law firms, McKenna became a law professor. Instead of running for government office, she became a judge. However, McKenna’s path to becoming a judge was not a smooth one. It wasn’t until 2011 that she was appointed to her current position as the Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Justice McKenna's story shows that members of the LGBTQ community can have successful and meaningful lives. (October 2022)

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.