In the big picture, it's immaterial, anyway. To Anders - former Eagle Scout, 4-H Club member and son of a Catholic deacon - every day is Coming Out Day.
"Though lots of people know I'm gay, the coming-out process really doesn't end," says Anders, 39, raised in Lancaster. "It's important to be who you are and to be happy with yourself.
"Many other courageous people came out before me. Being gay doesn't define who I am or impact my job in any tangible way, but maybe I can be a role model for some gay kid or inspire someone to get involved in politics."
Formerly a fast-rising litigator at Pepper Hamilton and a member of Gov. Rendell's finance committee in 2006, Anders didn't have to press much flesh for his seat in Common Pleas Court.
Three months into Anders' campaign, in April, Rendell nominated him to fill a vacancy. Anders was confirmed June 30, making him the first openly gay male judge in Philadelphia, said Mike Marsico, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Public Liaison.
It's also a huge deal that Anders, a Democrat, was confirmed unanimously by the Republican-dominated state Senate, says Andrew Chirls, 51, the first openly gay chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association and a partner at Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen.
"That we got somebody through the legislature . . . without anybody squawking about him being gay is a sign of social change.
"The fact that it's not a big deal is a big deal."
Assigned to Family Court (not his first choice, but he's a good soldier), Anders began hearing cases in mid-August. He is the youngest of 93 judges in Common Pleas.
Family Court Judge Ann Butchart, 56, an open lesbian elected to the bench in 2005, agrees that Anders' appointment is another step in the assimilation of gays here and elsewhere. "We're getting to the day when gay becomes an adjective like Irish or Jewish," she says. Anders' naming "is a huge tribute to the fact that we're certainly seen as a significant voting group."
