When G. Helen Whitener arrived in this country at age 16 from Trinidad and Tobago, she did so in a wheelchair.

The right side of Whitener’s body had become paralyzed. She learned it was from a hereditary degenerative back condition that has followed her for the rest of her life.

But with treatment, Whitener, appointed to the Washington state Supreme Court in 2020, hid her disability for years. She felt she already dealt with enough being a Black immigrant woman who was a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

“Just adding that additional one, disability, I knew it would literally prohibit me from being all that I can be,” Whitener said in an interview Friday.

She would use a cane, but play it off as a minor injury when asked. She only opened up about her condition after joining the Pierce Cou

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