Judge Paul G. Feinman, the first openly gay jurist to serve on New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, died on Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital.
He was 61. The cause was acute myeloid leukemia, his husband, Robert Ostergaard, said. Judge Feinman had been treated for the disease when he was appointed to the appeals court by Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo in 2017. His appointment came barely a decade after the Court of Appeals had ruled that the state Constitution conferred no legal right for same-sex couples to marry.
That right was granted by the Legislature in 2011 by the Marriage Equality Act. Judge Feinman was unanimously confirmed by the State Senate, though during a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee one legislator had.