Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

Inheritance Law And The Marital Presumption After Obergefell, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

When Choice Itself Hurts The Quality Of Life, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

“When Choice Itself Hurts the Quality of Life” (how the results of choice may be seen as the fault of the chooser), Human Life Review, vol. XLII, No. 4, Fall 2016. For a more extensive analysis, see "Her Choice, Her Problem: How Having a Choice Can Diminish Family Solidarity", International Journal of the Jurisprudence of the Family, 2 Intl. J. Jurisprudence Fam. 179 (2011)

Hidden Behind A 53 Foot Trailer: Are Women Truck Drivers At Risk For Sexual Assault?, Kim Bourne

Nursing Faculty Publications

Background. Sexual assault affects one in five women, worldwide, across their lifetime; approximately 22 million women in the United States (US). Only twenty-seven percent of the assaults are reported to the police. In the US, approximately 8% of the sexual assaults on women occur in the workplace; late hours of the night or early morning hours, working alone, working in isolated areas, working with the public, and working in a mobile workplace place women at an increased risk. There are approximately 200,000 women long-haul truck drivers in the US; 132,000 drives with a partner, and 99,000 drives with their intimate …

Obergefell And The "New" Reproduction, Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Gender And Non-Normative Sex In Sub-Saharan Africa, Johanna Bond

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article argues for the adoption of a gender-based framework to supplement rights promotion strategies and campaigns based on LGBTI identity. The Article draws upon feminist, queer, and trans theory to develop an expansive understanding of gender within international human rights law. An analysis incorporating such theory will catalyze more systematic promotion of LGBTI rights. Although the approach is applicable across a variety of geographic contexts, this Article uses sub-Saharan Africa as an illustrative case study. A focus on gender rights as supplementary to and interrelated with LGBTI rights offers both conceptual and pragmatic benefits in the struggle to promote …

Comment: De Facto Parents In Maryland: When Will The Law Recognize Their Rights?, Michelle E. Kelly

University of Baltimore Law Forum

Rachel and Allison were in a committed same-sex relationship beginning in 1990. Although they never legally married, the couple decided to manifest their love by having a child in 2001. Rachel and Allison both agreed that Rachel would carry the child by way of an anonymous sperm donor. Their child, Kevin, was born on September 3, 2002. Allison was present in the delivery room and even cut the umbilical cord. From the time Kevin was born until the summer of 2009 when Rachel and Allison ended their relationship, the couple equally raised and cared for Kevin, sharing all major and …

From Out To In: The Opportunity And Need For Clinical Law Programs To Effectively Serve Low-Income Lgbt Individuals, Sarah Steadman

Faculty Scholarship

Although the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. is heartening for lesbians and gays, the resulting discriminatory legislative backlash against the LGBT population shows that this community continues to be marginalized and at risk. Over two hundred anti-LGBT bills have been introduced in state legislatures since January 2016. North Carolina recently passed anti-LGBT legislation that eliminated and prohibits LGBT anti-discrimination protections, and bars transgender individuals from using gender congruent public bathrooms. One result of recent and historical discrimination is LGBT individual's newfound and pre-existing fears of encountering anti-LGBT bias when seeking legal services, even as recent developments have …

Campus Insecurity: Due Process, Proof, And Procedure In Campus Sexual Assault Investigations, Travis Nemmer

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

Child Sexual Abuse Victims And The Confrontation Clause, Nichole Timmreck

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

My Body Is My Temple: Utilizing The Concept Of Dignity In Supreme Court Jurisprudence To Fight Sex Reassignment Surgery Requirements For Recognition Of Legal Sex, Doran Shemin

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Implicit In The Concept Of Ordered Liberty: How Obergefell V. Hodges Illuminates The Modern Substantive Due Process Debate, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1021 (2016), Matthew Grothouse

UIC Law Review

This Article uses the historical sweep of the Due Process Clause to evaluate the merits of Obergefell’s majority and dissenting opinions. Specifically, the Article explains why the Due Process Clause’s prohibition on arbitrary punishments in general—and legislative judgments in particular—invariably mandates the judicial nullification of arbitrary and irrational legislative acts. What exactly constitutes a “legislative judgment” and how much deference courts should exercise in examining legislative acts are the crucial and largely unanswered questions lying at the heart of the Obergefell case (and in substantive due process cases in general). Although the Obergefell Court’s discussion focuses on a single case, …

When One Spouse Has It: Dementia And The Permissibility Of Marital Sex Under Criminal Statute, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1225 (2016), James Cook

UIC Law Review

The purpose of this article is to explore defining the acceptable parameters of marital sexual behavior, in situations where only one spouse has dementia, through criminal statute.

Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity, Mark E. Wojcik

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Race-Based Reverse Employment Discrimination Claims: A Combination Of Factors To The Prima Facie Case For Caucasian Plaintiffs, Shirley W. Bi

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Note discusses the practical impact resulting from the different modifications of the first prong of the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework in reverse discrimination cases. Part I of this Note will provide background information on traditional Title VII racial discrimination claims, when a minority plaintiff alleges racial discrimination in her workplace. Then, it will introduce the three step burden-shifting framework set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, which is the foundation for reverse racial discrimination cases. This Note focuses on the first of the four prongs of the prima facie analysis used by federal courts. Part II will …

Same-Sex Parenting Among A Patchwork Of Laws: An Analysis Of New York Same-Sex Parents’ Options For Gaining Legal Parental Status, Alexander Newman

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

While national attention has focused on the recent Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage, less attention has been paid to the aftermath: how will those same-sex couples, now legally married, use laws drafted for different-sex couples? This Note will focus on one of these conflicts: the children born to and adopted by same-sex couples, and the legal relationship between the couples and their children within the state of New York. As nontraditional families have become more prevalent, the law has lagged behind and families have been forced to apply outdated laws to new arrangements. This …

Debunking The Myth Of Universal Male Privilege, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Existing legal responses to sexual assault and harassment in the military have stagnated or failed. Current approaches emphasize the prevalence of sexual assault and highlight the masculine nature of the military’s statistical composition and institutional culture. Current responses do not, however, incorporate masculinities theory to disentangle the experiences of men as a group from men as individuals. Rather, embedded within contestations of the masculine military culture is the unstated assumption that the culture universally privileges or benefits the individual men that operate within it. This myth is harmful because it tethers masculinities to military efficacy, suppresses the costs of male …

The Case For Lgbt Equality: Reviving The Political Process Doctrine And Repurposing The Dormant Commerce Clause, Terri R. Day, Danielle Weatherby

Brooklyn Law Review

As a reaction to the Supreme Court’s historic marriage equality decision earlier this summer, many Southern state legislators opposing the trend toward LGBT-protective laws have proposed legislation that would essentially prohibit municipalities from carving out new antidiscrimination protections for the LGBT community. Conservative Senator Bart Hester spearheaded the passing of one of these “anti” antidiscrimination laws in Arkansas, and states like Texas, West Virginia, Michigan, and Oklahoma are not far behind. These “Hester-type laws” are strikingly similar to the Colorado amendment struck down by the Romer v. Evans Court 20 years ago. Both the Colorado amendment and the new wave …

The Two Laws Of Sex Stereotyping, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article offers two main contributions to the study of sex stereotyping. First, it identifies an organizing principle that explains why some forms of sex stereotyping are today legally prohibited while others are not. Second, it argues for a shift in the current rights framework--from equal opportunity to individual liberty--that could assist courts and other legal actors to appreciate the harms of currently permissible forms of sex stereotyping. Commentators and courts have long observed that the law of sex stereotyping has many inconsistencies. For instance, it is lawful today for the state to require that unwed biological fathers, but not …

The Incest Horrible: Delimiting The Lawrence V. Texas Right To Sexual Autonomy, Y. Carson Zhou

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Is the criminalization of consensual sex between close relatives constitutional in the wake of Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges? Justice Scalia thought not. The substantive due process landscape has changed dramatically in response to the LGBTQ movement. Yet, when a girl in a sexual relationship with her father recently revealed in an anonymous interview with New York Magazine that they were planning to move to New Jersey, one of the only two states where incest was legal, the New Jersey legislature introduced with unprecedented speed a bill criminalizing incest. But who has the couple harmed? The very …

The Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act: A Criminal Perspective, Meredith Boram

University of Baltimore Law Review

[H]ate crimes ... leave deep scars not only on the victims, but on our larger community. They weaken the sense that we are one people with common values and a common future. They tear us apart when we should be moving closer together. They are acts of violence against America itself.. . As part of our preparation for the new century, it is time for us to mount an all-out assault on hate crimes, to punish them swiftly and severely, and to do more to prevent them from happening in the first place. We must begin with a deeper understanding …

Half-Baked: The Demand By For-Profit Business For Religious Exemptions From Selling To Same-Sex Couples, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Should bakers be required to make cakes for same-sex weddings? With the announcement of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in Obergefell, one of the next confrontations in the struggle for expanded equality will involve the demand for religious exemptions from nondiscrimination laws in the public marketplace. The present discussion unravels the eclectic arguments that are repeatedly offered in support of such an exemption. The initial feint invokes a fundamental right to exclude, which fails for two reasons. First, the right to exclude is a fundamentally racist rule devised to prevent African-Americans from participating in free society. Rather than attempt …

The Global Struggle For Lgbtq Rights: Legal, Political, And Social Dimensions, Macarena Saez

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Marriage Came To Oklahoma: Now What Happens?, Robert G. Spector

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Once We're Done Honeymooning: Obergefell V. Hodges, Incrementalism, And Advances For Sexual Orientation Anti-Discrimination, Jeremiah A. Ho

All Faculty Scholarship

Undoubtedly, the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is the watershed civil rights decision of our time. Since U.S. v. Windsor, each recent victory for same-sex couples in the federal courts evidenced that the legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the U.S. was becoming increasingly secure. Meanwhile, momentum was growing for the visibility of sexual minorities nationally. Yet, is marriage equality the last stop in the pro-LGBTQ movement, or should we expect sexual minorities to advance in other legal arenas? Should we expect that the recent strides in marriage equality from Windsor to Obergefell can somehow leverage …

Rfras And Reasonableness, Steve Sanders

Indiana Law Journal

The organized opponents of legal and social equality for gays and lesbians, particularly the foes of marriage for same-sex couples, have coalesced in recent years around the rallying cry of "religious liberty." In 2015, the conflict between LGBT rights and religious liberty intensified as legislators in seventeen states considered adopting Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs). Most of the national attention focused on Indiana, where legislators adopted a RFRA under pressure from religious conservatives, only to later amend it under pressure from business and civic leaders over concerns that the law sent a message endorsing anti-gay discrimination.

RFRAs, which typically require …

The Criminalization Of Title Ix, Erin R. Collins

Law Faculty Publications

This essay proceeds in three parts. Part I provides a brief overview of the history of feminist-influenced criminal rape law reform and the rise of carceral feminism. Part II demonstrates how key tenets of the criminal law approach have been imported into emerging Title IX policies. Part III engages in a brief distributional analysis to identify who benefits and who loses from this approach. Then, drawing on insights from critical feminist critiques of rape law reform, begins to identify ways to use the opportunity Title IX presents to craft a very different kind of response to sexual assault--one that focuses …

Sexualization, Sex Discrimination, And Public School Dress Codes, Meredith J. Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

This essay joins the conversation about sexualization, sex discrimination, and public school dress codes to situate current debates within in the broader cultural and legal landscapes in which they exist. My aim is not to answer definitively the questions I pose above. Rather, I ground the controversy in these broader contexts in order to better understand the stakes and to glean insights into how schools, students, and communities might better navigate dress code debates.

Legacies Of Exceptionalism And The Future Of Gay Rights In Singapore, Stewart Chang

Scholarly Works

This article analyses how the ties between Singaporean exceptionalism and its Western colonial and neocolonial roots explain why the Singapore's legislature and judiciary have retained its anti-sodomy statute under s 377A of the Penal Code. After decolonisation, restrictive laws pertaining to sexual conduct, originally justified by colonial lawmakers as bringing superior Western moral order to the uncivilised Asian territories, evolved into an "Asian values" moral exceptionalism that distinguished Singapore from the overly liberal West. This exceptionalism, however, also illustrates an Oedipal angst of the Singaporean Government to overcome and overtake the old colonial father in its attempt to redefine itself …

Is Gay The New Asian?: Marriage Equality And The Dawn Of A New Model Minority, Stewart Chang

Scholarly Works

In this Article, Professor Chang analyzes the historic role of family in the politics of exclusion in the United States, evaluates the ways in which the stereotyping of Asian Americans as a model minority has perpetuated these politics, and warns against the possibility of a similar fate for gay and lesbian Americans. As a model minority, Asian Americans have been set as a standard against which other minority groups, particularly African Americans, are measured. Around the same time Asians were being extolled for their hard work and family values, Congress released the Moynihan report on the problem of broken families …

Sexbots; An Obloquy, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

Sexbots may displace humans in the sex trade (or on a wider scale) sometime between the 2020s and the 2050s. Although some perquisites may derive from the proliferation of sexbots (lower levels of sexually transmitted diseases, for example), significant social harms can also be predicted. In anticipation of those harms, lawmakers may endorse targeted regulation or outright bans. The uncertain limits of Lawrence v. Texas and its progeny of sex-toy decisions will present vague constitutional shoals to these aims. The legislating-of-sexbots crusade will also make for strange bedfellows, politically speaking, as social conservatives aiming to maintain traditional values ally with …