Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

Addressing The Causes Behind The Chicago Sex Trade, Andrea Callow

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Repair Versus Rejuvenation: The Condition Of Vaginas As A Proxy For The Societal Status Of Women, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

First, Do No Harm: Response To “If You Prick Me”, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

Brianna Lennon makes several cogent and persuasive arguments about Female Genital Mutilation (“FGM”) in her recently published Student Note entitled, If You Prick Me: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Female Genital Cutting Policy Turnabout. She successfully articulates why she believes that by prohibiting FGM, opponents are in effect reinforcing it as a tie to the former culture or country. However, although Ms. Lennon makes some sound points, she overlooks and thereby, fails to answer the most obvious question which is, who owns a woman’s body? If one reaches the conclusion that a woman owns her body, then the logical extension …

Reshaping The Narrative Debate, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

In Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter, Joan Williams sets out to alter the terms of the public discussion about working, caregiving, and work-family conflicts. In doing so, Williams also reframes part of the conversation about the use of narratives in legal analysis and policy-making.

This essay describes the debate about narrative or storytelling in the legal academy. Two decades ago, a pitched jurisprudential battle surfaced in the pages of law reviews about the value of storytelling as legal scholarship. Since that time, narrative has sifted into academic texts: people are telling stories all over the place. …

The Shifting Doctrinal Face Of Immutability, Tiffany C. Graham

Scholarly Works

This Article will examine the concept of immutability as it has been used in equal protection jurisprudence, particularly in the context of the gay rights movement. As a traditional matter, immutability was viewed as a doctrine that limited suspect and quasi-suspect classification status to those groups whose identities were fixed in some visible, often biological fashion. This narrow understanding of immutability served a purpose: it limited suspect or quasi-suspect status to those groups of individuals who were not at fault in some way for the subordinate condition in which they existed. Since the decisions in In re Marriage Cases, …

From Closet To Court Room: Asylum As A Judicial Step Towards Full Equality Between Sexual Orientations, Rory Riley

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Part I of this article provides a history of the federal appellate system, noting the detrimental impact circuit splits can have on the resolution of a particular legal issue. Part II sets out the history and the current state of asylum and sexual identity claims in the United States. Part III provides an analysis of when the Supreme Court has historically intervened in previous social controversies, such as segregation, interracial marriage, and gay rights in the context of substantive due process. Part IV discusses the importance of timely Supreme Court intervention in asylum sexual identity matters, particularly as issues surrounding …

The Miraculous Year 2010 In United States' Gay Rights Law: Anomaly Or Tipping Point?, Arthur S. Leonard

Articles & Chapters

During 2010 a series of decisions by United States District Court judges appeared to mark a significant breakthrough in the ongoing struggle by sexual minorities in the United States to achieve legal equality through the removal of objectionable laws and policies. Almost as if a dam had broken, there was a sudden rush of developments on three highly contested fronts: (1) the statutory ban on military service by openly gay individuals, (2) the exclusion from federal recognition for lawfully contracted same-sex marriages, and (3) a popularly enacted California state constitutional amendment taking away same-sex marriage rights that had previously been …

Gender Violence And Work In The United States And South America: The Parallel Processes Of Legal And Cultural Change, Julie Goldscheid

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Association Of Adult Businesses With Secondary Effects: Legal Doctrine Social Theory, And Empirical Evidence, Alan C. Weinstein, Richard Mccleary

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact On The Municipal Regulation Of Sex Work, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities.

In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through …

Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact On The Municipal Regulation Of Sex Work, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities. In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through …

Transgender Marriage: Which Came First, The Marriage Or The Transition?, Meghan Chrisner

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Christian Legal Society V. Martinez: Legal Issues, Arguments And Analysis, Alicia M. Lendon

Student Works

No abstract provided.

The Child Welfare Argument In The Same-Sex Marriage Debate, Jennifer M. Levanchy

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Transgender Student-­Athletes And Sex-­Segregated Sport: Developing Policies Of Inclusion For Intercollegiate And Interscholastic Athletics, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses the discrimination of transgender students who may be excluded, discouraged, or simply made to feel uncomfortable participating in athletic programs for their natal sex, by the sex-segregated world of athletics. The Author believes that until sports' governing bodies develop and enforce policies of inclusion, transgender students will continue to be denied access to and the benefits of athletic participation. The Author examines the values that should go into the formation of such policies, including legal, medical and educational concerns. Part I of the Article puts transgender students' athletic participation in context by examining educational athletic's deep and …

Caster Semenya And The Myth Of A Level Playing Field, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

In August of 2009, policies and procedures to verify the sex of female athletes were called into question when South African runner Caster Semenya
won the 800 meter event of the World Championships in Berlin. Responding to rumors of gender fraud, and fueled by Semenya’s speed, musculature, and deep voice, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) requested that Semenya submit to sex verification to confirm her eligibility for the women’s division.

This Article discusses the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) policy on sex testing, the myth of sex-verification testing, and the myth of the level playing field. It concludes with …

Section 5 Constraints On Congress Through The Lens Of Article Iii And The Constitutionality Of The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Craig Konnoth

Publications

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that will (hopefully) soon prohibit discrimination against LGB, and ideally, T, individuals, allows state employees to sue states for this discrimination. Scholars and activists fear that these provisions will be struck down as violative of state sovereign immunity, using the Court's recent jurisprudence on Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This jurisprudence requires Congress to put forth evidence of past state violations of a defined constitutional right before it can subject states to suit. This Congress has done.

However, this Comment suggests that a new requirement of Section 5 legislation is in the works. Key …

Exceptions: The Criminal Law's Illogical Approach To Hiv-Related Aggravated Assaults, Ari Ezra Waldman

Articles & Chapters

This Article identifies logical and due process errors in HIV-related aggravated assault cases, which usually involve an HIV-positive individual having unprotected sex without disclosing his or her HIV status. While this behavior should not be encouraged, this Article suggests that punishing this conduct through a charge of aggravated assault - which requires a showing that the defendant’s actions were a means likely to cause grievous bodily harm or death - is fraught with fallacies in reasoning and runs afoul of due process. Specifically, some courts use the "rule of thumb" that HIV can possibly be transmitted through bodily fluids as …

Laws As Tactics, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

This article will look at how trans scholarship and activism have taken up disciplinary critiques of gender, often influenced by Butler, and suggest that further development of critical trans perspectives focused on sites of regularization is needed, for which Butler's work on governmentality can be useful. To start, it describes some of the key concepts from Butler's work that have been taken up in trans politics and briefly reviews the distinctions Foucault offers between sovereignty, discipline and biopolitics. The article then examines some of the ways that trans politics has critiqued disciplinary norms, looking at resistance to the medicalization of …

Open Service And Our Allies: A Report On The Inclusion Of Openly Gay And Lesbian Servicemembers In U. S. Allies' Armed Forces, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of the Obama Administration's pledge to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the United States, the Columbia Law School Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic undertook a review of how allies of the United States moved from a policy of banning gay and lesbian servicemembers from serving in the armed forces to a policy of allowing these servicemembers to serve openly ("open service"). In documenting this review, this report aims to provide information about the decision to implement open service and the mechanics of the transition to open service in Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom. In …