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A Review Essay: Limits Of Gaylaw, Dale Carpenter

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Part of Professor William Eskridge's mission in Gaylaw (Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet by William N. Eskridge, Jr., Harvard University Press, 1999) is to describe the historical development of the complex legal and, to some extent the cultural, landscape for gays. (pp. 17-137) Though not much of Eskridge's presentation of the history of American law's treatment of gays draws from original research, its synthesis of the available secondary sources is a useful contribution and will likely become a staple of classes treating the subject.

The larger part of Gaylaw is the book's greatest challenge and the place where …