Dana Nessel
Dana Michelle Nessel (born April 19, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 54th Attorney General of Michigan since January 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Dana Nessel | |
|---|---|
Nessel in 2020 | |
| 54th Attorney General of Michigan | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2019 | |
| Governor | Gretchen Whitmer |
| Preceded by | Bill Schuette |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 19, 1969 West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
Alanna Maguire (m. 2015) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | |
Nessel is the second openly lesbian woman elected attorney general of a state in the United States (after Maura Healey) and the first openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in Michigan. She is also the first Jewish person elected Attorney General of Michigan.
In 2014, Nessel successfully argued for the plaintiffs in DeBoer v. Snyder, which challenged Michigan's ban on the statewide legal recognition of same-sex marriage; the case was eventually combined with others and appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States as Obergefell v. Hodges, which led to the nationwide legal recognition of same-sex marriage. In 2016, she founded Fair Michigan, a nonprofit organization that works to prosecute hate crimes against the LGBT community.