Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

Documenting Gender, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

This article provides an analysis of gender reclassification policies - policies that determine when an administrative agency will change an individual's gender marker on its records - in three contexts: policies related to placement in gender-segregated facilities, policies related to changing gender marker on ID, and policies related to the state provision of healthcare that is prohibited based on the gender on record for the person seeking care. The article looks at the significant variation in these policies across agencies to demonstrate the instability of gender as a category of identity verification and to ask whether the assumed usefulness of …

Symposium: Issues In Estate Planning For Same-Sex And Transgender Couples: Foreword, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

Despite the sea of change in possibilities for creating lawful relationships for many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, most jurisdictions do not allow them to marry or enter into any comparable legal status. The vast majority of states either by statute or state constitutional amendment actually prohibit marriage for same-sex couples. And, even when couples can marry or enter into a comparable legal status, they are faced with uncertainty regarding what effect, if any, will be accorded to that status should they travel or move. Given the legal challenges that same-sex couples face, the need for high-quality estate planning …

Intuition, Morals, And The Legal Conversation About Gay Rights, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

When lawyers and judges converse in litigation, factual and legal analysis typically takes center stage. Yet, when the legal conversation turns to the rights of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals, the ground shifts. Intuition and morals rationales often displace evidence-based reasoning. More specifically, arguments to limit the rights of lesbians and gay men tend to depend explicitly on intuition, and sometimes morality, in ways that contemporary arguments to restrict the rights of other social groups rarely do.

In addressing this dissonance, this essay has two central aims. The first is simply to observe the disproportionate openness to arguments based on …

Longing For Loving, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

Our task in this Symposium is to place Loving v. Virginia in a contemporary context: to interpret, if not reinterpret, its meaning in light of the settings in which race, sexuality, and intimacy are being negotiated and renegotiated today. So we might ask, in what way are Mildred and Richard Loving role models for us today? How, if at all, does the legal movement for marriage equality for interracial couples help us think through our arguments and strategies as we struggle today for marriage equality for same-sex couples?

One way to frame these questions is to ask whether there is …

An Open Letter To The Political Science Community, Daniel R. Pinello

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In 2003, the American Political Science Association (APSA) selected New Orleans as the site for its 2012 annual meeting.

In 2004, 78 percent of Louisiana voters (including 54 percent in Orleans Parish) passed the following amendment to their state constitution:

Marriage in the state of Louisiana shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman. No official or court of the state of Louisiana shall construe this constitution or any state law to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any member of a union other than the union of one man and …

Discrimination And Inclusivity: Why Apsa Should Not Meet In New Orleans, Martha Ackelsberg, Mary Lyndon Shanley

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The American Political Science Association (APSA) should move the site of its 2012 Annual Meeting from New Orleans for two reasons: first, because the legal recognition and protection of same-sex unions is an issue of human rights and equal citizenship, and second to fulfill its own long-stated commitment not to go to localities with policies that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. As a professional organization, it has a responsibility to ensure that every member of the association enjoys the full benefits of membership and an inclusive environment at meetings

Choices Matter: Human Rights, Economic Solidarity And The 2012 Apsa Meeting, Michael Goodhart

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I believe that because Louisiana’s constitution violates the human rights of many of our colleagues, the American Political Science Association (APSA) should move its 2012 meeting from New Orleans. If it does not do so, I would urge members to boycott (the same applies to the Southern Political Science Association, which meets annually in New Orleans).

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Youth In The Juvenile Justice System: Incorporating Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity Into The Rehabilitative Process, Heather Squatriglia

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the juvenile justice system must integrate the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBT youth into their rehabilitative process. It emphasizes that these youth face unique challenges, including harassment, rejection, and discrimination, which often lead to their involvement in the juvenile justice system. The system's failure to address these issues undermines its rehabilitative goals, necessitating specialized programming and support to ensure these youth can develop into healthy, contributing adults.

Three Liberal - But Mistaken - Arguments For Same-Sex Marriage, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From the Introduction

The constitutional argument for legally recognizing same-sex relationships as "marriages" is a straightforward non-discrimination claim: because there is no relevant difference between the capacity of same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples for marriage, restrictive laws arbitrarily withhold the recognition and benefits which legal marriage entails. If the statutory category - in this case, a couple's sex - does not contribute to the realization of any legitimate state goal, the law lacks a basis in reason. And, it is unconstitutional. As the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the state "failed to …

What's In A Name? A Philosophical Critique Of 'Civil Unions' Predicated Upon A Sexual Relationship, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

'Civil unions' represent a fragile political armistice, not lasting peace. My interest in 'civil unions' is not, however, political. It is philosophical. I argue in this paper that 'civil unions' are wrong - and should be abandoned in law - because they are incoherent. This article is about what's in the name, marriage. My thesis is that the reason why same-sex couples may not marry defeats the case for 'civil unions' defined (even in part) as a sexual relationship. To reasonably deny these couples access to marriage is to deny them access to 'civil unions'. Conversely, to create 'civil …