Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

First And Last Chance: Looking For Lesbians In California's Fifties Bar Cases, Joan W. Howarth

Scholarly Works

Do all of us who choose members of our own sex as objects of desire and as sexual partners share some meaningful common identity, such as “homosexual,” “gay” or perhaps “queer”? The classifications “homosexual” and “gay” claim for themselves just that kind of inclusiveness; that is, that the gay world includes people of all races, all classes and any possible gender identity. You, me, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, J. Edgar Hoover: we are all gay together. In this way “homosexual” or “gay” is a generic term, like, for example, “human being.” But we know that the alleged inclusiveness masks just …

The Rights Of Gay Prisoners: A Challenge To Protective Custody, Joan W. Howarth

Scholarly Works

This Note focuses on the specific issues raised by the traditional method of dealing with homosexuals in prison: isolation from the general prison population. This traditional segregation often results in almost twenty-four hour-a-day confinement to a cell, which severely limits access to programs and opportunities normally enjoyed by prisoners.

This Note first discusses the history and current practice of segregation of gay prisoners' as well as the broader subject of protective custody, and then outlines the judicial response to the problems of protective custody prisoners generally and gay prisoners specifically. It then critiques the judicial confusion and resulting reluctance to …