Law and Gender Commons^™

Fired Anti-Gay Atlanta Fire Chief Strikes Back In Lawsuit, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

A Bare Desire To Harm: Transgender People And The Equal Protection Clause, Kevin M. Barry, Brian Farrell, Jennifer Levi, Neelima Vanguri

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges establishing marriage equality for same-sex couples marks a major shift in recognizing gay, lesbian, and bisexual people as a central part of the fabric of American society. Obergefell also marks the passing of the torch from “LGB” to “T”; the next civil rights frontier belongs to transgender people, for whom key barriers still remain. In January 2015, a transgender woman filed an equal protection challenge to a provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), which explicitly excludes several medical conditions closely associated with transgender people. In support of this challenge, …

Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom, And The Influence Of Obergefell V. Hodges On Distinguishing The Dividing Line, Kathleen Rainey Mcstravick

St. Mary's Law Journal

Obergefell v. Hodges, a United States Supreme Court case, added more fuel to the fire, leaving many to wonder how to voice religious opposition to same-sex marriages, and what are the second order effects for religious opposition in light of the new rule. The Court held the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Obergefell, brings the conflict between freedom of religion and LGBT rights to a new level by questioning how far freedom of religion can be used to refuse anti-discrimination statutes regarding sexual …

Same-Sex Harassment After Boh-Brothers, Alex Reed

Utah Law Review

Because Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Boh Brothers Construction Company ostensibly represents the first faithful application of the gender-stereotyping theory in the context of same-sex harassment litigation, additional courts may elect to abandon the objective-evidence standard in favor of adopting the Fifth Circuit’s subjective-perception test. Employers, therefore, must resist the temptation to dismiss Boh Brothers as a legal aberration confined to the Fifth Circuit and instead take steps to prepare for the possibility of a legal environment in which overtly masculine men and patently feminine women may assert viable same-sex harassment claims. By eliminating the requirement that harassees exhibit readily …

From The Editors, Anna M. Klobucka, Jeannette E. Riley, Catherine Villanueva Gardner

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Chicana Studies: An Intergenerational Conversation With Historian Vicki L. Ruiz And Filmmaker Virginia Espino, Lori A. Flores

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A History Of Their Own: A Conversation With Vicki L. Ruiz, Anupama Arora, Laura K. Muñoz, Sandrine Sanos

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Creating Consciousness, Creating A Legend: A Conversation With Virginia Espino, Historian And Producer Of No Más Bebés (2015), Anupama Arora, Laura K. Muñoz, Sandrine Sanos

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

No abstract provided.

I Will Tell Your Story: New Media Activism And The Indian “Rape Crisis”, Rukmini Pande, Samira Nadkarni

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This article analyzes the mediatized representations of the Indian “rape crisis” that gained global attention in the aftermath of the brutal gang rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey in New Delhi in 2012. While much attention was given to Leslie Udwin’s documentary on the incident, India’s Daughter (2015), which was subsequently banned by the Indian government, there were several other creative responses that attempted to negotiate with the meaning of the event. This article examines two such texts—the multimedia short story We Are Angry (2015) and the augmented-reality comic Priya’s Shakti (2014). Both these texts declare their intention to function as …

Feminism In The Age Of Trump, Jennifer Ching, Mai Ratakonda, Miriam Ticktin, Claudia Flores, Julie Suk, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Susanna Mancini

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The symposium explores the challenges and opportunities for advancing gender equality through legal reforms, particularly focusing on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the intersectionality of women's rights with other social justice movements. It emphasizes the need for a more inclusive and systemic approach to addressing gender inequalities, highlighting both the historical struggles within the feminist movement and the contemporary barriers to achieving substantive equality. The discussion underscores the importance of constitutional and legislative reforms, such as the ratification of the ERA, to address ongoing disparities in pay, representation, and access to reproductive rights.

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 …

The Health Exception, Monica E. Eppinger

All Faculty Scholarship

The abortion doctrine laid out in Roe v. Wade permits a procedure necessary to preserve the life or the health of the pregnant woman, setting out what has come to be called the “life exception” and the “health exception.” This Article investigates the background and antecedents of the health exception, identifying three periods of formation and change up to the drafting of the Model Penal Code in 1959. It argues that theories of health lie at the heart of legal doctrine, shaping common-law treatment of abortion and persisting in nineteenth- and twentieth-century statutes. This account reveals origins of a health …

#Sayhername Captured: Using Video To Challenge Law Enforcement Violence Against Women, Amber Baylor

Faculty Scholarship

Recorded encounters between women of color and police officers have been invaluable in bringing the reality of these interactions into the living rooms of otherwise unknowing Americans. The recordings are instrumental pieces of documentation and evidence, with the power to impact verdicts and galvanize the domestic struggle for human rights outside of the courtroom. They also are fraught with ethical issues that must be addressed by attorneys and activists hoping they effect change. Complexities such as implicit biases, editing and sourcing of videos, anonymity for those attacked and bystanders, and vicarious trauma on affected communities complicate use of violent police …

Madonnas And Whores In The Workplace, Jessica K. Fink

Faculty Scholarship

Much has been written about “lookism” – the preferential treatment given to those who conform to societal standards of beauty. But in a recent case before the Iowa Supreme Court, a gender discrimination plaintiff alleged a sort of “reverse-lookism,” claiming that her male employer terminated her long-term employment because the employee was too physically attractive, thus tempting the employer to think about entering into an extramarital affair. To the great surprise of many who followed this case, the Iowa Supreme Court sided with the employer, declining to find him liable for gender discrimination. As one might expect, uproar ensued, with …

Marriage, Abortion, And Coming Out, Scott Skinner-Thompson, Sylvia A. Law, Hugh Baran

Publications

Over the past two decades, legal protections for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals have dramatically expanded. Simultaneously, meaningful access to reproductive choice for women has eroded. What accounts for the different trajectories of LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights?

This Piece argues that one explanation—or at least partial explanation—for the advance of LGBTQ rights relative to reproductive rights is the differing degree to which individuals have come out about their experiences with sexuality compared to coming out about experiences with unplanned pregnancies. In particular, as catalogued in this Piece, popular media portrayals of lesbian and gay individuals have proliferated, broadening the …

Schrodinger's Child: Non-Identity And Probabilities In Reproductive Decision-Making, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

Derek Parfit's non-identity problem calls into question the claims of both the state and individuals when they purport to act for the benefit of future children. This paper discusses how adoption of the non-identity argument as a legal argument could affect reproductive and family policy, demonstrating that it undermines the child-centric approach to assigning legal parentage. The paper concludes, however, that these non-identity problems can be solved by the expected value approach, which demonstrates that efforts to benefit future people can be logically coherent even if those efforts also affect the genetic identities of the future people.

Zero-Tolerance Comes To International Law, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

From Rights To Dignity: Drawing Lessons From The Movements For Aid In Dying And Reproductive Rights, Yvonne F. Lindgren

Faculty Works

In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court identified the abortion right as “inherently, and primarily, a medical decision” to be decided between doctors and their patients. Early abortion case law closely linked the right to the doctor-patient relationship and situated abortion within the context of healthcare. Over the last forty years, however, the abortion right has come to be viewed almost exclusively as a constitutional right of decision-making or “choice.” Under the Court’s current analysis, the abortion right is cabined exclusively as a constitutional right to decide to terminate a pregnancy and, as a result, the Court has upheld significant …

Debunking The Myth Of Universal Male Privilege, Jamie R. Abrams

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

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 …

Asian/American/Alien: Birth Tourism, The Racialization Of Asians, And The Identity Of The American Citizen, Mehera Nori

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The challenges faced by Asians and Asian Americans are typically left out of the discussion when it comes to the media's depiction of the complexities behind immigration policies in the United States. Yet, behind the scenes, the rise of birth tourism as a major form of Asian immigration to the United States continues to grow. Birth tourism encompasses medical facilities that provide childbearing services to foreign women who wish to receive care in the United States, which results in the child having American citizenship. This note highlights the growing impact of birth tourism on Asian immigrants and the redefining of …