Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

Massachusetts' Domestic Partnership Challenge: Hope For A Better Future, Jennifer Levi

Faculty Scholarship

Acknowledging that its decision means that "some household members" may be without a "critical social necessity," the Massachusetts Supreme Iudicial Court (SJC) ruled in Connors v. City of Boston that Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's executive order granting health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of city employees could not stand in the face of a Massachusetts state insurance law. In Connors, the SJC simultaneously recognized that although the demographics of Massachusetts households have changed within the more than forty years since the state insurance law, G.L. c. 32B (Chapter 32B), was adopted, that law nevertheless constrains municipalities from extending …

Workplace Sexual Harassment In Singapore: The Legal Challenge, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the nature and prevalence of sexual harassment in the work environment, and compares civil and criminal law in Singapore to the approaches taken by various jurisdictions in dealing with the problem. It is submitted that legislation is needed to protect employees, as Singapore law currently does not present any clear and coherent means for victims to seek redress for workplace sexual harassment.

De Facto Parents And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The New Ali Principles, Julie Shapiro

Faculty Articles

Alternative families - those that do not fit the classic nuclear family model - have been the focus of legal reform over the last twenty years. The American Law Institute has produced model legislation recognizing de facto parents as holders of some limited rights. To some this is a more flexible regime that would benefit non-nuclear families, in particular lesbian families. This article critiques the ALI draft, demonstrating that its promise is largely illusory.

Family Law And Gay And Lesbian Family Issues In The Twentieth Century, David L. Chambers, Nancy D. Polikoff

Articles

Over these thirty years, lesbians and gay men have increasingly challenged conventional definitions of marriage and the family. In this brief article, we tell the story of gay people and family law in the United States across this period. We divide our discussion into two sections: issues regarding the recognition of the same-sex couple relationship and issues regarding gay men and lesbians as parents. These issues overlap, of course, but since family law discussions commonly treat adult-adult issues of all sorts separately from parent-child issues, we believe it convenient and helpful to do so as well.

The Supreme Court, Sexual Citizenship And The Idea Of Progress, Kendall Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

Is American Progressive Constitutionalism dead ... yet? I propose to seek the beginnings of an answer to this question in the pages of a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court. I do feel obliged to say this, not because I am committed to a court-centered adjudicative conception of American constitutionalism; to the contrary. But rather, because the decision on which I want to focus seems to me to offer a rich resource for critical reflection on the idea of self-government whose connections to Progressive Constitutionalism give us our topic this afternoon.

International Decisions: Grant V. Southwest Trains Ltd., Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sexual Orientation & Human Rights In American Religious Discourse, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Sexual Orientation & Human Rights in American Religious Discourse, edited by Saul M. Olyan and Martha Nussbaum (Oxford, 260 pp., $29.95)

The editors of this volume fear that "reasoned debate" about homosexuality is imperiled. Indeed Martha Nussbaum in her introduction reports that she was "surprised" to "discover" that she could engage in such debate with religious thinkers who take a less permissive view than she in the Colorado Amendment Two "gay-rights" litigation.

Intercountry Adoption Under The Hague Convention: Still An Attractive Option For Homosexuals Seeking To Adopt?, Lisa Hillis

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Cabining Freedom: A Comparative Study Of Lesbian And Gay Rights In The United States And Canada, Credence Fogo

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article examines the divergent approaches of Canada and the United States in addressing gay and lesbian equality, highlighting how their differing legal frameworks and cultural values shape the protection of rights. While Canada, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its Section 1 balancing test, has expanded relationship rights for sexual minorities, the U.S. has taken a more fragmented approach, emphasizing individual liberties over social rights. The analysis underscores the tension between Canada's communitarianism and the U.S.'s individualistic legal culture in advancing LGBTQ+ rights.

Coming Out: Decision-Making In State And Federal Sodomy Cases, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

In 1791, American states were enacting laws against sodomy at the same time they ratified the Bill of Rights, the first ten constitutional amendments meant to safeguard fundamental rights of individuals in a free society. In a March 1789 letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson asserted that a bill of rights was necessary to give the judiciary the power to protect such individual rights. Ironically, that which the judiciary gives, it may also take away, since "[t]he legislator is a writer. And the judge a reader."

This Article deconstructs recent sodomy cases in order to challenge judicial adoption or reinscription …

Is Sexual Harassment Sex Discrimination? Still An Open Question, Helen Lafferty

Buffalo Women's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Willis V. Wal-Mart: Same-Sex Sexual Harassment Is A Recognized Claim In West Virginia, Rochelle L. Brightwell

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Heteronormativity And Federal Tax Policy, Nancy J. Knauer

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reproducing A Fit Citizenry: Dependency, Eugenics, And The Law Of Marriage In The United States, Matthew Lindsay

All Faculty Scholarship

Between the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, American state legislatures enacted a series of new laws that delineated a class of citizens who were deemed ineligible to participate in the institution of marriage. Scholars have characterized this development as evidence that lawmakers had lost faith in a laissez-faire approach to nuptial governance, and thus transformed marriage into an object of public regulation. This essay argues that behind the ostensible nuptial privatism of the mid-nineteenth century lay a self-conscious policy. of judicial governance. Judges invoked the language of nuptial privacy and the common law of contract strategically to advance their …

The Legitimacy Of Cross-Gender Searches And Surveillance In Prisons: Defining An Appropriate And Uniform Review, Karoline E. Jackson

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sex And Sodomy And Apples And Oranges - Does The Constitution Require States To Grant A Right To Do The Impossible, Jay Alan Sekulow, John Tuskey

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Casey "Versus" Salerno: Determining An Appropriate Standard For Evaluating The Facial Constitutionality Of Abortion Statutes, Skye Gabel

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Caring For Justice, Reviewing Robin West, Michael T. Cahill

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Shifting The Paradigm In Child Pornography Criminalization: United States V. Maxwell, Chad R. Fears

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Young V. Bayer Corp.: When Is Notice Of Sexual Harassment To An Employee Notice To The Employer?, Stanford Edward Purser

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Erotics Of Torts, Carol Sanger

Michigan Law Review

"What kind of feminist would be accused of sexual harassment?" asks Jane Gallop (p. 1). Gallop quickly provides her own challenging answer: "the sort of feminist . . . that . . . do[es] not respect the line between the intellectual and the sexual" (p. 12)." Gallop is firm and unrepentant about not respecting this line: "I sexualize the atmosphere in which I work. When sexual harassment is defined as the introduction of sex into professional relations, it becomes quite possible to be both a feminist and a sexual harasser" (p. 11). Figuring out what this means - and what …

Writing Rules Does Not Right Wrongs, Odeana R. Neal

All Faculty Scholarship

I believe the work that lawyers, legal academics, and judges do is important. Our work allows us to devise legal theories, develop litigation strategies and determine outcomes that can make a tremendous difference in people's lives. As a result, I applaud the insight and creativity of Judge Beck and Professors Glennon and Goldfarb. Their work demonstrates how law can be used to protect gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, their relationships and their families.

Playing The Loving Card: Same-Sex Marriage And The Politics Of Analogy, David Orgon Coolidge

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

From Loving To Romer: Homosexual Marriage And Moral Discernment, Richard F. Duncan

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Will New York Recognize Same-Sex Marriage?: An Analysis Of The Conflict-Of-Laws' Public Policy Exception, Todd C. Hilbig

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Down Under: Lessons From The Australian Experience In Prohibiting Employment Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan

Washington International Law Journal

Australia offers greater legislative protection against employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation than does the United States. This difference is not due to greater social or political awareness on the part of Australians. Rather, Australian federal law results from the work of progressive national committees given wide discretion to address discrimination under international agreements to which Australia is a party. The creation of Australian federal laws is not instructive in the U.S. context because the limited scope of these laws is incompatible with American discrimination statutes. Furthermore, the process by which sexual orientation became a proscribed ground under …

Trends: Lesbian And Gay Rights In Zimbabwe, Leane Renée

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Marriage And Simulacra: Exploring Conceptions Of Equality, Heather Hughes

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Single Gender Marriage: A Religious Perspective, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This Article will offer a religious perspective which is a response to the legal arguments in favor of single-gender marriage. Three arguments will be made: first, that the religious perspective identified and associated with the Roman Catholic tradition offers a fundamental basis for family life that has been proven to be beneficial to society as a whole, and to the message of revelation consigned to Christians by Jesus Christ; second, inasmuch as the religious perspective is being contradicted by judicial interpretation rather than through legislative process, a tyranny of judicial activism has and is subverting a public policy consensus; and …

Sexual Dis-Orientation: Transgendered People And Same-Sex Marriage, Mary I. Coombs

Articles

In this Article, Professor Coombs argues that the debate about same-sex marriage has wrongfully ignored transgendered people and their relationships. She provides an overview of arguments made by opponents of same-sex marriage, such as tradition, procreation, child-rearing, and family values. She then examines cases involving transsexual marriages and uses this analysis to deconstruct the same-sex marriage debate. Professor Coombs argues that an honest consideration of transgendered people and their relationships forces a re-evaluation of arguments against same-sex marriage and disrupts the gendered patriarchy on which traditional marriage rests. Marriage should be seen as a relationship between two people, regardless of …