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. 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. Early life and education Nessel was born in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, the daughter of Martin and Sandra Nessel. She was raised in West Bloomfield and graduated from West Bloomfield High School in 1987, where she played soccer and was named All-State. She earned her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1990 and her Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School in 1994. While in college, she also performed standup comedy for several years.