Search

Only since 2011 have sexual minorities been able to serve openly in the U.S. military. The previous anti-gay policies and culture of the military may have increased anti-gay beliefs among veterans. Using data from the 2010–2016 General Social Survey, we tested whether veterans more frequently endorsed anti-gay beliefs than their non-veteran peers. Adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics with multiple logistic regression, we tested the associations of veteran status with five anti-gay beliefs (i.e., disallowing a gay person (1) from publicly speaking or (2) teaching at a university, (3) removing a gay-supportive book from a library, (4) whether same-sex sexual relations are wrong, and (5) support of same-sex marriage. Veteran status was associated with greater disagreement with same-sex marriage (B = 0.16, p = 0.033) but not with other anti-gay beliefs. Most anti-gay beliefs among veterans were explained by other sociodemographic factors and may not be inherent to veteran status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tying together theories of democratic justice and intersectionality, and presenting a contextual and updated theorization of the social-sexual organization, this article discusses the scope of justice offered to lesbians and gays in Denmark. Analyzing relations of recognition and representation in educational settings and asylum policy, it shows the obstacles to and/or opportunities for justice, including the different effects of intersections of heterosexism, sexism and racism on the agency of various groups of lesbians and gays. Considering justice as a process, the article argues that lesbians and gay movements' democratic pursuit of justice both push existing boundaries of justice and feed on them. And, it indicates conditions for transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to reflect on the transgressive social manifestations of the right of autonomy in relation to the lgbt community. It is transcendental to look at this type of social behavior with incidents in the law and through this thorough analysis know the management of these relationships, delving into their future to determine if there are manifestations that account for behaviors with homophobic, abuse and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Criminal Code reform passed by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, which decriminalized certain same-sex acts under certain circumstances. He discusses the efforts to commemorate the 1969 Criminal Code reform, the response of the Liberal Party government, led by Pierre's son Justin Trudeau to the Criminal Code reform, and the need to abandon queer New Year's and annual pride pilgrimages in search of more local histories to celebrate.

Several studies have described and analyzed the development and diffusion of hate crime laws in the United States, but none specifically examined state-level differences in protected categories. Forty-five of the 50 states have a hate crime statute, but only 30 of those include sexual orientation. In this study the social construction framework is applied to the hate crime policy domain in order to determine whether or not variations in the social and political status of gays and lesbians are associated with the inclusion of sexual orientation in state hate crime laws. Content analysis of daily newspapers in six states revealed that a positive social construction is associated with groups seeking hate crime law protections, and that political influence may also be a key factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This essay argues that the East German film Coming Out (1989) achieves a dual objective: to reflect a version of living conditions for gay citizens of the GDR at the time and to project the possibility of an enlightened future in which they, and other outsiders, do not face discrimination because of their difference. Coming Out, directed by Heiner Carow, was the first feature film about homosexuality in the GDR. It premiered the day the Berlin Wall fell and came after a long and complicated history of gay rights and activism in East Germany. Despite decriminalisation in 1968, the position of lesbians and gay men in the GDR was an ambivalent and contradictory one. Through narrative and cinematographic means, the film refers to gay history and to the dissonance between socialist society and individualism, while also presenting an affirmative message for positive change and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: QT v Director of Immigration is the most important decision on gay rights in Hong Kong since the unequal ages of consent between heterosexuals and homosexuals were held to be unconstitutional 10 years ago. The Court of Appeal of Hong Kong affirmed the right of same‐sex couples married or in a civil partnership overseas to be treated on an equal basis with married heterosexual couples. This note considers the strengths and shortcomings of the Court of Appeal's reasoning, in terms of its potential significance both to the rights of sexual minorities and to the wider protection of human rights by means of the common law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Court of Justice of the European Union decided its first ever discrimination claim argued explicitly on two grounds--sexual orientation and age--on 24 November 2016. It found that no discrimination could exist on both grounds where no discrimination existed on the grounds considered separately. With this, the Court rejected the possibility of recognising discrimination based on two grounds combined together and thus the relevance of intersectionality in European Union (EU) discrimination law. This note critiques the decision in Parris v Trinity College Dublin not only for disregarding intersectional discrimination but also for its weak single-ground analysis. In particular, the note argues that the Court failed: (i) to appreciate the normative basis of intersectionality--as creating unique patterns of disadvantage based on a combination of grounds--and how it transpires in practice; and (ii) in the alternative, to apply the Employment Directive 2000/78 correctly to claims of sexual orientation and age discrimination and in the light of its discrimination jurisprudence. The failure in Parris thus signifies a lost opportunity for the Court to address complex forms of structural inequality in EU law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reflection draws upon two recent ‘moments’ in British sexuality politics—a series of Parliamentary debates on Global LGBT rights and Brighton Pride’s campaign to ‘Highlight Global LGBT Communities’. It contrasts these two moments in order to demonstrate how, at a time when LGBT rights have ostensibly been ‘won’ in the UK, there is an increasing tendency to shift focus to the persecution of SOGI minorities elsewhere in the world. This shift in focus sets up a binary of here versus there that is politically persuasive but ultimately limited and limiting. By reflecting on the way that this growing trend of creating sexual politics elsewhere occurs in two very different locations in British politics and activism, we seek to begin a conversation about the relational affects of placing sexual politics ‘elsewhere’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article supports the expansion of the definition of parent beyond a legal or biological parent. It cites the importance of recognizing the type of parentage illustrated by the American Law Institute (ALI) principles. It also examines decisions issued by the New York Court of Appeals regarding the status of gay people and the protection afforded to them and their families by the Court.

Commitment to the European Union’s gay rights standards remains weak in new EU members and countries applying for EU membership. If the EU’s standards have minimal consequences, then when do voters support the EU’s involvement in gay rights? The existing research misses a comparison of opinions between those who identify with gay people, and those who do not. Sexuality-based marginalization carried out by state institutions (political homophobia) motivates those who identify with gay people to support alternatives to their state’s authority. Using an original survey of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I find that those who identify more closely with gay people are more likely to support transferring control of gay rights to the EU. Using twenty-one surveys of EU member states, I find that in countries with high levels of political homophobia, those who report discrimination on the basis of sexuality exhibit higher levels of support for the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyses the recent focus on Russian human rights violations in Anglophone media, scrutinising the ideological agenda of the visual politics which strategically foreground victimised bodies of Russian dissidents. Notwithstanding the importance of a critique on human rights violations, the article points to the unwanted but very real side effects the current mediatisations of violence have, from structural victimisation and the creation of ‘gay martyrs’ to the resignification of the West as progressive and ‘gay’ and Russia as backward and heterosexual. A close reading of popular press photographs of wounded Russian gay youth and the textual context – arguably representative for the Western media focus on the ‘Eastern’ violation of human rights between 2012 and 2014 – serves to illustrate how an image of Russian nation and Russian state politics is forged within Anglophone media discourses meant to reinforce the positive identity of the self-same by evoking pity, empathy and a responsible helpful attitude toward the endangered othered. The essay argues that Anglophone media’s focus on the vulnerability of Russian LGBTIQ+ bodies, consciously or unconsciously, reduces the subjects to this vulnerability, confirming feelings of moral superiority within the enlightened audience. The study highlights the important role that Russia’s vulnerable citizens play not only in the construction of values such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘acceptance’ and evaluations like ‘progressive’ and ‘modern’, but also in perceptions of the nation and its people and the reaffirmation of the dualistic divide between ‘The East’ and ‘The West’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) has expanded over the last two decades, with new technology allowing researchers to analyze more data, faster, and in more complex ways. However, a review of research articles that mentioned the use of QDAS found that authors often omitted critical details about the value-added of the software. This article seeks to fill that gap. We describe our use of NVivo to analyze qualitative data collected for the comprehensive review preceding the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the 1994 law banning openly gay individuals from serving in the U.S. military. We describe why we chose this software product, detail the staffing strategies we used for the team-based analysis, and provide examples of the kinds of queries we ran to answer the study questions. We conclude with a brief discussion of “lessons learned” from this quick-tempo, large-scale qualitative project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 2013, I had the opportunity to accompany a group of Israeli gay couples to Mumbai to conduct ethnographic research on their experiences with transnational surrogacy. Based on this study, the article discusses their encounters with the Indian and Israeli bureaucracy establishing legal parenthood and citizenship to their children. The involved procedures seldom worked out smoothly, and brought about many moments of standstill. 1 suggest that these moments constituted crises of citizenship, in which the intended parents' experiences clashed with their expectations towards the state and their place in the world. As both countries had no written policies with regards to transnational surrogacy, the protocols and requirements were in flux and left them with constant anxiety from the unknown and with the feeling that many of the requirements were arbitrary, even exploitative or spiteful. The very same moments also unveiled my interlocutors' power, as agents and brokers--and at times even their social network back home--assisted them in the maze of bureaucracy and intervened on their behalf. Yet, their reliance on intermediators turned out to be a double-edged sword: The intended parents often felt that the middle men themselves were not engaged enough, overcharged them, or tricked them into additional payments. Vulnerability and privilege go here hand in hand, thus allowing for an understanding of intended parents that does not view them as either successful neoliberal citizens or vulnerable victims of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various aspects of equal protection in America, and it mentions how courts are split regarding whether to apply a heightened scrutiny or rational basis standard of review to laws and policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation. The political power component of equal protection analysis is examined, along with anti-gay laws and legal protections for minorities in the U.S. The nation's Supreme Court and suspect classifications are assessed.

Professors Chilton and Posner argue that a major predictor of contemporary human rights practices can be found in states' own distant pasts. Countries that faced adverse geographic, demographic, or institutional conditions centuries ago tend to have worse human rights practices today than those that faced favorable conditions. These conditions can affect contemporary human rights practices regardless of modern-day interventions, such as international human rights treaties. This claim is important, but it also leaves many questions unanswered. This response Essay focuses on two such unanswered questions. First, Professors Chilton and Posner do not theorize the mechanisms through which historical conditions affect contemporary human rights practices. This Essay draws on the development economics literature to articulate some preliminary hypotheses on how fixed geographic and historical factors can affect contemporary human rights. More generally, it suggests that, if we want to develop a research agenda that incorporates history into our understanding of contemporary human rights practices, we need theory to explain how fixed historical and geographic factors affect contemporary human rights. Second, Chilton and Posner do not address whether historical trends can be reversed. This Essay focuses on this question by drawing on the concept of critical junctures. Critical junctures are transformative moments in a nation's history during which there exist opportunities to reverse deeply rooted historical trends. In the spirit of Chilton and Posner's article, it takes seriously the idea that history matters. But unlike Chilton and Posner, who focus on path dependence, the idea of critical junctures suggests that there exist opportunities for change. This Essay illustrates the potential importance of critical junctures by exploring the development of gay rights in Argentina and South Africa, two countries with long histories of conservative sexual norms and repressive anti-gay laws, which nonetheless became global trailblazers on gay rights. These case studies provide important insights into the pathways through which historical trends can be reversed. This Essay concludes that, if human rights scholarship is to take history seriously, it should include the study of critical junctures, and not just path dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's views about a doux-commerce (sweet commerce) theory of the market, and it mentions the relationship between religion and law and the limits of antidiscrimination law in America. The religious aspects of same-sex marriage in the U.S. are examined, along with the connection between commerce and religious faith. The same-sex marriage law case Obergefell v. Hodges is assessed, as well as U.S. state and municipal legal protections for gays and lesbians.

The article reports the judgments delivered by the Caribbean Court of Justice including "Tomlinson v. Belize" and "Tomlinson v. Trinidad and Tobago." It reports that the court rejected a claim that the Immigration Acts of Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, both of which contain express provisions banning the entry of homosexuals into those two countries, violate the right to free movement of individuals within the Caribbean Community.

The article discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of same-sex marriage in cases 'Obergefell v. Hodges' and 'Romer v. Evans.' Topics discussed include laws related to marriage equality; cause for social disfavor of homosexual behavior; social landscape of Romer; and ways in which Romer contributed to the advancement of gay rights in America.

This article discusses the legal characteristics associated with gender equality and same-sex marriage according to the Civil Code of Peru. The author comments on the legal status of civil unions, marriage, and sexual orientation in the country and describes the representation of gay people and couples in Peruvian law.

The case Atala Riffo and girls v. State of Chile, is a milestone in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court, so the case has special significance, because there is evidence that in the States of the Americas there is still a high degree of intolerance and discrimination in relation to sexual orientation. In this case, this situation was caused by the Chilean judicial system, making discrimination and arbitrary interference with the privacy of Ms. Atala Riffo for being a lesbian. This reason was the main base of the decision that was resolved to withdraw custody of their daughters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homonationalism is a conceptual framework that allows to understand how the struggle for LGTB rights is being assimilated by national exceptionalism in order to constitute a geopolitical colonial differentiation. It builds equivalences between homosexual and national subject positions that allows the differentiation of subject positions and populations within the country and between countries, justifying policies based on the differentiation of human rights development. This phenomenon has been applied to the US and its theoretical development is being spreading throughout the world. In light of recent developments both in terms of national identity and LGTB legal rights, Catalonia could be susceptible of an exceptionalism that could lead to homonationalist discourses. This paper explores the homonationalist discourse in Catalonia using narratives from LGTBI activists. Participants identify a homonationalist discourse and recognise the presence of homo-normativity questioned by the activist. Nevertheless, a homonationalist geopolitical hierarchy is not appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use comparative historical analysis to explain agenda-setting and the timing of policy outcomes on same-sex marriage in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Unlike the United States and Canada, Australia does not have a bill of rights, making litigation to obtain rights not enumerated in existing legislation unavailable to activists. Extending the literatures on the development of public policy and on political and historical institutionalism, we argue that in the absence of domestic opportunities for legal change, international law becomes more important to activists in wealthy democracies, but it is contingent on states’ specific institutional and cultural features. Even when international law is “domesticated” into national political structures, it is still secondary to internal conditions in countries with extensive rights-based polities. International law may set a political agenda, but once introduced, policies move according to internal conditions related to party discipline, the centralization of courts, and policy legacies within those countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2005 Canada-wide legalization of same-sex marriage provided same-sex couples with access to an institution they had previous been excluded from. Yet not all couples choose to marry. In this paper, we examine why this is the case, considering the role of personal, political, and historical factors. We draw on 22 interviews with people in common-law same-sex relationships in Toronto to examine how they understand their relationship within the new context of marriage equality. We find that participants feel they are held accountable to marriage as a default relationship legitimacy norm, indicating that this new institutional access is accompanied by a set of social expectations. Despite their awareness of the need to navigate a social context favoring marriage, participants individualize their relationship decisions as personal rather than political. Participants often contradict themselves as they articulate what marriage means to them, suggesting that, in this period of legal and social transition, people are negotiating multiple meanings, societal messages, and traditions when it comes to making sense of their relationship. We discuss the implications of these findings for LGBQ activism and the framing of sexuality-based inequalities in Canadian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Koushal v Naz the Indian Supreme Court overturned a High Court judgment which had declared unconstitutional section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalising 'carnal intercourse against the order of nature'. In doing so, it has rebranded gay and transgendered Indians as criminals. This case note explores some of the structural problems that led to this judgment. The first problem is the transformation of the Indian Supreme Court into a populist, quasi-legislative, institution that sees itself as a tool of governance. This has put significant pressure on its counter-majoritarian role. The second relates to the sheer size of the Court's docket (given its wide jurisdiction and lax standing rules), coupled with the Indian legal academy's inability and unwillingness to continuously demand judicial fidelity to the law. These factors have led to the normalisation of unreasoned or poorly-reasoned judgments and a breakdown of stare decisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I analyze “personal experience stories around the homosexual” that entered into the parliamentary debates on the Sexual Offences Act in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and shaped understandings of sexual citizenship in particular ways. Specific attention is paid to the effects of political storytelling involved in the making of British sexual citizens. I explore how the paradoxical figure of the evil homosexual emerges and how politicians, in telling stories of the evil homosexuality, police the border that can effectively separate sexual outsiders from sexual citizens. I conclude with an analysis of these stories, and how their telling is closely linked to the postwar social welfare thinking in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2013, Siona O'Connell, Nadia Davids and I were awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) grant to support our Sequins, Self & Struggle: Performing and Archiving Sex, Place and Class in Pageant Competitions in Cape Town project, the aims of which are to research, document and disseminate archives of the Spring Queen and Miss Gay Western Cape (MGWC) pageants performed by disparate coloured communities in the Western Cape. Important to these performance events is the figure of the ‘moffie’, a queer male, often a transsexual, who has traditionally choreographed and designed the Spring Queen pageant, but who is forbidden from competing in it. Alternatively, MGWC is a platform for queers of colour to perform in a secure environment without exploitation. My individual work in this collaboration focuses on the MGWC pageant and the attendant methodological questions that have arisen in our attempt to forge bridges between Western queer theory and local articulations of gender identity and alternative sexualities, considering the current preoccupations in scholarship around (South) Africa that cut across geography, politics, economics and history. I will briefly outline the research questions that have arisen from my particular focus on the project aims: the relationship between post-apartheid South African national identity and gay rights, new postcolonial directions in queer theory and the sexual geographies of Cape Town that are bounded by race and economic privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author argues that various conflicts in domestic and transnational legal systems have occurred as a result of tension between the efforts to protect the rights of children and the recognition of sexual rights, focusing on legal precedents and a Russian law which prohibits propaganda supporting LGBT persons. Human rights laws are mentioned, along with the claim that the Russian law seeks to restrict gay advocacy in the name of child protection. The European Court of Human Rights is assessed.

The article discusses the difficulties that are associated with hate crime prosecutions in America, focusing on the constitutional and practical limitations of the U.S. Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky hate crime case United States v. Jenkins is examined, along with crimes against LGBT people and state laws in America. Legal protections for sexual orientation and gender identity are assessed.

Title VII's prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex is read broadly to include gender nonconformity. Although social scientists have documented the historic link between the homosocial performance of sexual orientation and the achievement of hegemonic masculinity within the modern workplace, courts continue to struggle with the task of defining the scope of protected gender nonconforming conduct. As many within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community continue to demand equal access, recognition, and employment opportunity, only twenty-one states provide statutory protections for LGBTpersons or their allies, and courts utilize a number of judicial limits in an attempt to readily distinguish claims based on "sex " and those based on "sexual orientation." However well-intended, such tools frustrate the legislative goals underlying Title VII and negate social science that suggests a new, fluid conceptualization of gender normativity is in order-one capable of recognizing sexual orientation's unique role in achieving and reinforcing gender. Through the use of such sociological research, legal scholarship, and judicial opinions, this Comment examines the complex scope of sex and gender within Title VIIjurisprudence. Nominally, this Comment proposes the use of an expansive interpretation of sex and what constitutes discrimination based on sex and discourages the imposition of court-crafted limits to the scope of conduct capable of classification as gender nonconforming. Critically, this Comment does not assert that LGBT identity, and expressive manifestations of such identity, universally fall under the purview of Title VII. Rather, this Comment suggests that social science indicates that sexuality can, and often does, play a pivotal role in the public construction and reinforcement of gender. This Comment then examines the implications of alternative approaches to expanding protection for sexual minorities, including statutory expansions to class-based, federal civil rights laws and vulnerability scholarship, which advances the abolition of class-based structures as a means ofprotecting equal employment opportunity in the United States. It concludes that critics of an expansive, and more sociologically informed examination of gender, must find solace in the Court's delegated responsibility to interpret and define the scope of discrimination prohibited under Title VII and, instead, focus criticism on the abuse of judicial biases, which mar outcomes and create inconsistencies. Ultimately, this Comment recognizes the fluidity of gender as a social construction in contemporary, hegemonic society and charges the Court to fulfill its duty to examine the array of conduct, including LGBT identity, association, and outward manifestations of such identity, which may, and often do, serve as building blocks for the achievement of gender within the context of a sex-stereotyping suit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the laws of the European Union (EU) permitting the unequal survivor's pensions for same-sex couples. Topics discussed include pension for the retired same-sex employees, laws for the prohibition of sexual orientation discrimination applied on the employment related pensions, and the laws for the regulation of discrimination in employment.

This Essay takes up the puzzle of the risky argument or, more precisely, the puzzle of why certain arguments do not get much traction in advocacy and adjudication even when some judges find them to be utterly convincing. Through a dose examination of the sex-discrimination argument's evanescence in contemporary marriage litigation, this Essay draws lessons about how and why arguments become risky in social-justice cases and whether they should be made nonetheless. The marriage context is particularly fruitful because some judges, advocates, and scholars find it "obviously correct" that laws excluding same-sex couples from marriage discriminate facially based on sex or impose sex stereotypes. Yet advocates have tended to minimize these arguments and most judges either sidestep or go out of their way to reject them. Certain kinds of arguments, including the sex-discrimination argument in marriage cases, turn out to pose greater risks than others because they ask decisionmakers to confront long-settled social hierarchies and norms, such as those associated with gender roles. As a result, they risk inciting Burkean anxieties about the dangers of nonincremental change. Arguments that ask less of decisionmakers, such as those about animus associated with a particular enactment-- or that have a more limited reach, such as heightened scrutiny for sexual orientation at a time when few explicitly antigay laws remain--are less likely to provoke that discomfort. Moreover, a win on these narrower arguments can also erode stereotypes and norms underlying a challenged law or social policy. In marriage cases, for example, a pro-equality ruling helps call longstanding marital gender roles into question even if the court's decision never mentions sex discrimination. Still, risky arguments add value within litigation by powerfully calling attention to deep problems that underlie a challenged law. Through close study of these costs and benefits, the risky-argument frame advanced here aims to illuminate the complex dynamics of argumentation in the litigation and adjudication of social-justice cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many jurisdictions the list of factors for which anti-discrimination law applies has been expanded to include sexual orientation. As a result, moral and legal difficulties have arisen for religious organizations whose basic beliefs include the belief that sexual acts between persons of the same sex are immoral. In light of these difficulties, is anti-discrimination law of this sort unjust? Recently John Finnis has argued that, as commonly applied, such anti-discrimination law is disproportionate and therefore unjust. In this essay, I critically examine Finnis's argument, and argue that, on account of the conception of disproportionateness that is employed, it does not succeed. So as to enable the argument from disproportionateness to succeed, I develop and defend a modified conception of disproportionateness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the eleven years since the Supreme Court handed down its Lawrence v. Texas1 ruling, state courts have not consistently adhered to the decision's implicit rejection of laws that regulate based on animus alone. Relying on the Court's explicit limitation of its decision to cases that do not involve minors, "persons who might be injured or coerced or who are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be refused, " public conduct, prostitution, government recognition of same-sex relationships, and practices not "common to a homosexual lifestyle"-the so-called Lawrence exceptions-a number of states have continued to use archaic antisodomy laws to police conduct they see as morally reprehensible. This Comment examines the interpretation and application of the Lawrence exceptions by state courts, arguing that by maintaining discriminatory prosecution and punishment schemes for conduct deemed tofall within the exceptions, states run afoul of the core antidiscriminatory logic of Lawrence and of the Court's earlier ruling in Romer v. Evans.3 My analysis addresses not only whether laws that fall within the Lawrence exceptions discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but also whether they enable or invite discrimination along gender- and race-based lines. While some commentators have addressed Lawrence's exceptions for conduct involving minors,4 potentially coercive or injurious relationships,5 and, to a lesser extent, the exception for same-sex marriage6, there is a lack of scholarship on how the Lawrence exceptions have affected so-called crime against nature laws-antisodomy laws which often survived in some form after 2003 because of the exceptions identified by the Court. This Comment addresses this gap, using crime against nature laws as an example to suggest that the Lawrence exceptions continue to enable and invite discrimination that contravenes the principles of Lawrence and Romer. Arguing that this trend cuts against the Court's intent in deciding Lawrence, I draw on an analogue from First Amendment jurisprudence to propose a framework with which courts can adhere to Lawrence's antidiscriminatory principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have upheld and expanded gay rights, but the question of how these decisions will impact the wideranging diversity among sexual minorities has yet to be determined. This paper focuses on the impact of these decisions on the State of Gay in the U.S., including those from an array of demographic, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural affiliations. The United States v. Windsor (570 U.S. 2013) and Hollingsworth, et al., v. Kristin M. Perry (570 U.S. 2013) decisions are also considered within the context of the global community, both how they were influenced by and how these court findings will in turn broadly impact these cultures. How these decisions were rooted within the context of marriage reform legislation in the 1970s, and how heterosexuals may well be significant beneficiaries of the rulings, is also discussed. The paper concludes with a dialogue on the paths toward continued legal, societal, and political reform within a global context, and how congruence between the State of Gay and Human Rights can be more fully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the global issue of gay rights as of 2014. Topics discussed include the views of U.S. President Barack Obama on gay rights, the support expressed by U.S. politicians on same-sex marriage, and the legality of same-sex marriage in Great Britain. Also mentioned are a law on homosexuality that was passed in Uganda, the banning of sodomy, lesbianism and bisexuality in Russia, and the recognition to gay rights as human rights.

Two white male Afrikaans gay academics decide to respond to a call for papers to be presented at a conference with the theme "Gardens of justice" in Stockholm, Sweden in 2012. In the course of their attempt to co-author an academic paper on the history of the struggle for sexual minority freedom in South Africa, they are confronted by their own histories, contradictions, literary influences and context - confrontations that ultimately mirror the instability of subjectivity and the valences of a critically queer positionality in post-apartheid South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first law review article to examine transcripts, court filings, and published opinions about jury voir dire on attitudes toward same-sex sexuality and LGBT issues. It demonstrates that jurors express a range of homonegative attitudes. Many jurors voicing such beliefs are not removed for cause, even in cases involving lesbian and gay people and issues. It suggests some best practices for voir dire to uncover attitudes toward same-sex sexuality, based on social science research. Voir dire on LGBT issues is likely to become more important in coming years. Despite enormous gains, including historic marriage equality decisions, the LGBT rights movement remains a cultural flashpoint. In part due to the work of LGBT advocates, more cases involving LGBT issues and sexuality are likely to enter the criminal legal system. These could involve alleged harassment or bullying, like the Dharun Ravi case, or hate crimes against LGBT people, which may be on the rise even as LGBT rights advance. As stigma lessens and more complainants come forward, there also may be more claims of same-sex sexual assault or intimate partner violence. In many of these cases, defense attorneys or prosecutors will seek to voir dire jurors regarding their attitudes toward LGBT people and sexuality. At the same time, LGBT venirepersons may fear discrimination in voir dire. In 1998, Paul Lynd wrote that prospective jurors who revealed that they were gay faced employment discrimination or even criminal prosecution under then-extant sodomy laws. Today, Lawrence v. Texas has largely eliminated criminal stigma, and some jurisdictions have LGBT anti-discrimination protections. Nonetheless, depending on the jurisdiction and the context, prospective gay jurors might still fear public "outing," and only a few jurisdictions protect jurors from peremptory strikes based on sexual orientation. This paper examines the complex and varying situations in which LGBT issues may surface in voir dire and offers suggestions for navigating this contested terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses dignity in relation to the legal rights of gays and lesbians in America as of July 2014, focusing on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 2013 case United States v. Windsor which deals with same-sex marriage laws in the U.S. and the constitutionality of Section 3 of the nation's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Anti-discrimination protections and the U.S. Constitution are mentioned, along with civil rights and sodomy laws in America. Morals legislation is examined.

The article examines the issue of minimizing health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients. Topics cited include the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) releasing comprehensive guidelines on "Implementing Curricular and Institutional Climate Changes to Improve Health Care for Individuals Who Are LGBT, Gender Nonconforming, or Born with DSD" in November 2014.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the journal on topics including sexual orientation discrimination in America, protections for sexual minorities under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act, and presentations at a "Revisiting Sex" Symposium.