San Antonio College Library

Presents a study of the response of state and federal appellete courts to lesbian and gay rights claims in the last two decades of the twentieth century, based on an examination of court cases, as well as the men and women who presided over them.

In this book the author aims her intellectual firepower at a key source of opposition to gay equality: the politics of disgust. She argues that disgust has been among the fundamental motivations of those who are fighting for a variety of legal restrictions affecting lesbian and gay citizens. When confronted with the thought of homosexuality, she writes, they experience "a deep aversion akin to that inspired by bodily wastes, slimy insects, and spoiled...

"American regulation of sexual variation has been responsive to multiple anxieties - about disgusting acts, gender deviation, and predatory sexuality. Gaylaw authoritatively shows how such legal regulation has evolved in the United States throughout the last century, contributing to the construction of homosexuality as a totalizing identity trait and to the phenomenon of the closet, initially a hiding place for gay people, now best viewed as an exclusion...

When the Supreme Court struck down Colorado's Amendment 2--which would have nullified all state and local laws protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination--it was widely regarded as a victory for gay rights. Yet many gays and lesbians still risk losing their jobs, custody of their children, and even their liberty under the law. Using the Colorado initiative as his focus, Gerstmann untangles the complex standards and subtle rhetoric the Supreme...

In the case Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the Supreme Court ruled that the Scouts had a right to expel gay members. The authors look at whether the Scouts and other noncommercial associations have a right to discriminate when selecting their members, and whether the state should have a legitimate interest in regulating the membership practices of private associations.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people face the same family issues as their heterosexual counterparts, but that is only the beginning of their struggle. The LGBT community also encounters legal barriers to government recognition of their same-sex relationships and relationships to their own children. Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Families addresses partner recognition, parenting, issues affecting children...