Law Commons^™

The First Amendment's Petition Clause As An Alternative Basis For Challenging Voter Initiatives That Burden The Enactment Of Anti-Discrimination Protection For Gays, Lesbians, And Bisexuals, Kevin Francis O'Neill

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of my remarks today is to suggest that the First Amendment-specifically, the Petition Clause of the First Amendment provides an alternative basis for vindicating gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights in certain cases. At least in the context of voter initiatives that seek to abolish anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation, the Petition Clause is a promising alternative to equal protection and substantive due process. My objective here was merely to plant a seed: to identify an alternative basis for vindicating the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals-especially when combatting homophobic voter initiatives like those in Romer and Cincinnati. It's …

Planning For The Future: Using Child Support Trusts To Prepare Both Father And Child For Life After Professional Sports, Thomas C. Quinlen

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The issue of professional athletes siring children out of wedlock was first thrust into the national conscience in an article in Sports Illustrated in May 1998. The SI piece was followed by several newspaper articles in various cities around the country, but like most hot news topics, it was quickly forgotten as the nation moved on to more pressing issues. This Note aims to revisit this issue with an eye towards practical and legal resolution of this pervasive problem, suggesting ways that lawyers and agents can establish child support trusts to represent their clients' interests and provide the best result …

Consent To Sperm Retrieval And Insemination After Death Or Persistent Vegatative State, Carson Strong

Journal of Law and Health

Although a number of additional legal questions can be raised, including issues of paternity and inheritance, this paper focuses on the legal issues pertaining to consent, as well as the ethical questions raised above, which need to be discussed in order to address adequately the legal consent issues. The paper is organized as follows: first, the current law of consent to sperm retrieval and insemination after death or PVS is discussed in order to identify gaps in the law - areas that the law does not address or concerning which it is unclear; second, ethical issues are discussed that are …

History Unbecoming, Becoming History, Toni M. Massaro

Michigan Law Review

The last few decades have seen a torrent of legal commentary supporting gay equality and attacking the punishment, failure to protect, and refusal to affirm gay conduct and identity. William Eskridge, a prominent voice in this fin-de-siecle literature, now draws together and expands on his previous work in Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet. Though far more successful in shaping the uses of the past than in showing the way to the future, the book instructs even where it fails. It augurs a century that could well witness the end of official discrimination against gay individuals, and the relegation …

Introduction: A Retrospective On The Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, Arthur S. Leonard

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Law And The Sexual Subaltern: A Comparative Perspective , Ratna Kapur

Cleveland State Law Review

I am entering this conversation as a comparativist who wants to complicate the received wisdom about India in the West in regard to matters of sex, desire and the law. I want to address three issues:* First, how sex generally and alternative sexuality more specifically, are emerging as zones of contest in the legal arena and are simultaneously cast as cultural controversies in post-colonial India.* Second, I address how sexual subalterns, that is, gays, lesbians and sexworkers, are challenging dominant sexual and cultural norms.* And finally, I examine why a project of pleasure and desire is an important political goal …

The Beltway And Beyond: The Struggle For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual And Transgender Equality, Rebecca Isaacs

Cleveland State Law Review

I will focus primarily on the struggle in the legislative arena in Washington, DC and more importantly, in states and local communities. And I will focus on three key issues for the GLBT community: families; civil rights and the intersection with religious liberty rights; and finally, violence and hate crimes. In summary, the GLBT community is pushing ahead of these and other issues in all 50 states.

Canadian Same Sex Relationship Recognition Struggles And The Contradictory Nature Of Legal Victories, Brenda Cossman

Cleveland State Law Review

I want to pick up on one of the themes running through virtually all of the papers in this symposium-the contradictory nature of law. Legal victories-and defeats-are always fragile, partial and contradictory. The perspective I bring to this theme is a Canadian one, where in the context of gay and lesbian struggles, legal victories now outweigh legal defeats. I will tell a story of these legal victories, which resulted in a much celebrated case in 1999 known as M v. H., in which the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the equality rights of same sex couples, and struck down a …

Second-Parent Adoption By Same-Sex Couples In Ohio: Unsettled And Unsettling Law, Susan J. Becker

Cleveland State Law Review

In addition to the need for homes for children without any legally recognized parent, the need for a child who already has one legal parent to be adopted by the parent's gay or lesbian partner who is already serving as a de facto parent is very important to the child's emotional stability and material well being. This type of adoption, frequently referred to as a "second-parent" adoption,' is the focal point of this article. However, the matters discussed herein also apply directly and by analogy to situations where gay and lesbian couples and heterosexual unmarried couples desire to jointly adopt …

Bitch V. Whore: The Current Trend To Define The Requirements Of An Actionable Hostile Environment Claim In Verbal Sexual Harassment Cases, 33 J. Marshall L. Rev. 465 (2000), Jamie Lynn Cook

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Social Norms And The Legal Regulation Of Marriage, Elizabeth S. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

Americans have interesting and somewhat puzzling attitudes about the state's role in defining and enforcing family obligations. Most people view lasting marriage as an important part of their life plans and take the commitment of marriage very seriously. Yet any legal initiative designed to reinforce that commitment generates controversy and is viewed with suspicion in many quarters. For example, covenant marriage statutes, which offer couples entering marriage the option of undertaking a modest marital commitment, are seen by many observers as coercive and regressive measures rather than ameliorating reforms.

The law tends to reflect – and perhaps contributes to – …

Legislating Special Rights , Karen Engle

Cleveland State Law Review

Is it possible to pursue a queer agenda in promoting and defending gay rights ordinances? My answer is yes, or at least that we need to try to do it. I propose that we pursue a queer agenda by arguing for special rights, not equal rights. Not only does the special rights argument fit with the queer agenda; it also provides our best hope for confronting gay rights opponents. I'll put forth my argument in the following way. First, I'll talk about what a queer sensibility is, and discuss how a call for special rights fits within that sensibility. Second, …

Welfare Reform And The Use Of State Power In The Prostitution Of Poor Women , April L. Cherry

Cleveland State Law Review

I would like to talk about the connection between welfare reform "as we know it," and the potential for increased state support for the prostitution of women. In particular, I would like to discuss the work requirements found in both federal and state welfare reform statutory schemes. I worry that these work requirements will sanction the prostitution of poor women, particularly poor women of color, lesbians, and other women with children who are already forced to live their lives at the economic and social margins of society. I worry that the work requirements found in the new welfare regime will …

Sexuality And Civil Rights: Re-Imagining Anti-Discrimination Laws, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this essay, I first describe the origins and current status of anti-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation and/or gender identity. I examine the debates over whether existing laws are underutilized, and I analyze the variations in the structures of state and local laws that contribute to an unevenness in the patterns of utilization. These factors suggest that even persons living in states or local jurisdictions that already have anti-discrimination laws may lack meaningful mechanisms for redress. Part two raises the ante in my exploration of the relationship between sexuality and civil rights laws by asking whether there are ways …

Couples: Marriage, Civil Union, And Domestic Partnership, David L. Chambers

Book Chapters

In this country, during the last decades of the twentieth century, thousands of lesbians married other women and thousands of gay men married other men. Many of these couples recited traditional vows in churches and synagogues. Others have pledged to each other in their own backyards in words that they wrote themselves. But not one of these thousands of solemn occasions was recognized as creating a legally valid marriage. In the United States, each state has its own statute defining who can marry, and as far as the states were concerned, these couples were playing dress up. One state has …

Word Games, War Games, Diane H. Mazur

Michigan Law Review

In 1993, the country's interest in the issue of military service by gay citizens escalated to a level that can only be described as a national obsession, and "obsession" is by no means too strong a term. The subject of gay servicemembers was debated within all three branches of government, all ranks of the military, and all walks of civilian life.1 The issue of military service by gay citizens became a line in the sand, a cultural standoff on issues as sensitive and disparate as sexuality, patriotism, civil rights, and civic obligation. Janet Halley2 returns to that time of obsession …

Gay People, Trans People, Women: Is It All About Gender?, Chai R. Feldblum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A few gay rights theorists have long pointed out that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation can be conceived of as discrimination based on sex. But those of us who play primarily in the legislative or litigation arenas have largely ignored the practical applications of that insight. In this brief essay, I want to consider whether it makes sense for gay rights legislative advocates and litigators to continue to downplay the gender non-conformity aspects of gay sexual orientation . . . the first part of this essay reviews activities that occurred between 1993 and 2001 regarding coverage of gender …

Internet Sexual Predators: Protecting Children In The Global Community, Madeleine M. Plasencia

Articles

The Internet, serving as the largest network of computers in the world, has provided the horizontal parallax over which all can participate in communication and transaction, education and entertainment4 It also serves a community of participants and beneficiaries whose goals are not always shared or legal. The rise of this advanced technology has led to a new "red light district."

Unlike the physical spaces available for the distribution of pornography and sexual favors for money, the Internet, with its lack of structure, has led to an unimaginable amount of pornography available for any on-line spectator.' Information necessary for consummation of …

Chronicling A Movement: 20 Years Of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, Arthur S. Leonard

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Personal Harms And Political Inequities, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

When we think back to where the legal battle for gender equality and the rights of gay people stood a century ago, we see that, in fact, there was not much of a battle. Indeed, advocates for change were seldom triumphant. A survey in 1900 would have shown that American women were twenty years away from obtaining the right to vote, were unfit to be lawyers according to the U.S. Supreme Court, and were nowhere near being eligible-let alone required-to serve on juries. The survey would also have revealed a wide-ranging web of federal and state laws and policies that …

The Baker [Baker V. State, 744 A.2d 864 (Vt. 1999)] Case, Civil Unions, And The Recognition Of Our Common Humanity: An Introduction And A Speculation, David L. Chambers

Articles

Every. Vermonter seems to know about two recent decisions of the Vermont Supreme Court. In the first, the court struck down the system of local financing of public schools. Like similar decisions in many other states, the school financing case led to a struggle in the legislature and difficulties for legislators at election time. In the second and even more controversial decision, the court reached an outcome that no other state supreme court had ever reached: it held unconstitutional the state's marriage law on the ground that it inappropriately denied the legal benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. This decision, …

"Franco's Spain, Queer Nation?", Gema Pérez-Sánchez

Gema Pérez-Sánchez

This Article discusses how, through its juridical apparatus, the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco sought to define and to contain homosexuality, followed by examples of how underground queer activism contested homophobic laws. ... Part III illustrates the social and cultural legacy of queer activism against Francoist laws on homosexuality through an analysis of Eduardo Mendicutti's novel Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera Anyone Can Have A Bad Night and the young, urban culture, post-Franco context of supposed historical amnesia in which it was produced. ... As the power of Francoism and its institutions waned during the last years of the …

A Short Essay On The Baring Of Breasts, Libby Adler

Libby S. Adler

This brief essay strings together case law, literary material and pop culture all on the subject of women baring their breasts. By changing the angle on each incidence of breast baring, it demonstrates how the act of baring is amenable to multiple readings, all of which can be returned to enrich a relevant legal analysis.

Revisiting Gay Rights Coalition Of Georgetown Law Center V. Georgetown University A Decade Later: Free Exercise Challenges And The Nondiscrimination Laws Protecting Homosexuals, Matthew J. Parlow

Matthew Parlow