Bruce William Nickerson

Bruce William Nickerson
Nickerson in August 2007
Born	(1941-06-21) June 21, 1941 (age 80) Modesto, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Stanford University and Golden Gate University
Occupation	Attorney, lawyer
Years active	1975–present
Known for	LGBTQ rights; lewd conduct law; civil rights; police sting operations; police entrapment; discriminatory prosecution
Spouse(s)	Billie Fae Sommerfeld ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1967)​ Donna Gene Barnsley ​ ​ (m. 1980; div. 1987)​ Rhonda Dodd ​ ​ (m. 2015; died 2015)​
Children	2

Bruce William Nickerson (born June 21, 1941) is a civil rights and gay rights attorney in California. He is also a leading authority on lewd conduct law in the United States. He has operated a solo legal practice in San Carlos, California for most of the last 40 years and over the last 15 years has affiliated himself with Carlos Scott López, a public health advocate and human rights attorney with significant experience as an LGBTQ civil rights advocate and serving refugees and asylum seekers with gender-related claims.

Nickerson is recognized as having "made a sort of mini-career out of defending these cases" on lewd conduct and police sting operations targeting gay men.^[1] Openly gay himself, he has argued in front of the California Supreme Court and regarding civil rights issues affecting gay people. In the late 2000s, he was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly on Fox News regarding a series of cases which he had been arguing on behalf of several hundred defendants related to a sting operation targeting gay men in Fresno, California.

Education[]

Nickerson attended Modesto High School in Modesto, California. He holds an A.B. in Economics, with honors, from Stanford University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Golden Gate University. Nickerson was a champion debater while at Modesto.

Career[]

Nickerson has operated a solo legal practice since his joining the California Bar, though has often affiliated himself with attorneys addressing civil rights issues and lewd conduct cases.^[2] His focus on lewd conduct emerged after pursuing several cases addressing such conduct and freedom of speech issues at adult bookstores in the early 1980s in and around the Bay Area of California.

Critics[]

Given Nickerson's stance and successful track record on gay issues and civil rights, he has been the subject of many critics, including Bill O'Reilly on Fox news. (YouTube Video Clip available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzXjKHD4Qsw)

Articles[]

Nickerson successfully argued Baluyut v. Superior Court, (1996) 12 Cal.4th 826, which established discriminatory prosecution as a defense in police sting operations which target gay public conduct and ignore identical straight public conduct.

Additional interests[]

Nickerson is an avid world-traveler and photographer, having visited six continents and dozens of countries. He has particularly keen interests in hiking, bridges, and waterfalls. He completed the entire John Muir and Inca Trails in the mid-1990s, finished the Grand Canyon rim-to-river-to-rim hike in 2002, and rafted down the Grand Canyon in 2011 (for his 70th birthday). He also recently visited the Everest and Ama Doblin Base Camps in Nepal (with oxygen support) via helicopter (2019), the Borobudur ruins (Indonesia), and the temple of Pagan (Myanmar) (2013). Additional travels include a trip to central Guyana (to Kaieteur Falls) (January, 2010); to Nanga Parbat's Rupal Face in Pakistan and within 30km of the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal (though had to turn back on the Annapurna Base Camp Trail due to his horse's inability to complete the journey) (September, 2010); and to Manitoba for the annual Polar Bear Migration (late 2011). His ability to complete additional trips largely depends on his continued recovery from a coronary bypass operation and a car accident in May, 2009, which affected his left lung. Nickerson is also an accomplished organist, a member of the American Guild of Organists, and enjoys giving classical music concerts in his home which contains a pipe organ. The most recent of these concerts took place in his home in mid-2012, complemented by a reunion of close family members—including his two ex-wives, ex-boyfriend, and ex-boyfriend's husband in April 2013. He is hoping to have another concert sometime in 2021 when his local church has completed a restoration of its organ.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website