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Democracy, Kulturkampf, And The Apartheid Of The Closet, William N. Eskridge, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the generation after World War 2 (1945-69), homosexual intimacy was a serious crime in Colorado and other states, as was any kind of "lewdness" or homosexual solicitation; people suspected of being homosexual were routinely dismissed from federal, state, and private employment.' In the generation after Stonewall (1969-97), Colorado's legislature repealed the state's consensual sodomy law, and the governor by executive order prohibited state employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The cities of Aspen, Boulder, and Denver enacted ordinances prohibiting private sexual orientation discrimination in housing, employment, education, public accommodations, and health and welfare services. In 1992, the …