Most oregon voters have never heard of Rives Kistler. Unless they are legal junkies, they know little about the impressive resume of the justice who sits on the Oregon Supreme Court; who clerked for the late U.S. Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell and has been endorsed in next Tuesday's Oregon primary by nearly every major newspaper in the state. And unless they've received mail from the Christian Coalition of Oregon, they are unlikely to know another tidbit: Rives Kistler is "the only open homosexual Supreme Court judge in the nation." That message, distributed recently in 75,000 Christian Coalition voter guides, is also being broadcast on Christian radio stations, much to the anguish of Kistler, 54, who has never concealed his sexual orientation, but has zealously- and until now, successfully- guarded his privacy. "I didn't want to be known as the gay judge." Kistler told NEWSWEEK. "I would hope to be known as the good judge."
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