The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)
The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)
Few issues in American politics inspire such passion as that of civil rights for gays and lesbians. In this group of original essays, scholars and activists writing from a number of different perspectives provide a comprehensive overview of this heated debate. Contributors thoroughly investigate the politics of the gay and lesbian movement, beginning with its political organizations and tactics. The essays also address the strategies and ideology of conservative opposition groups, such as the Christian Right. They focus on key issues for public policy, including gays and lesbians openly serving in the military, anti-discrimination laws, and the ongoing crisis of AIDS. The book ends with chapters that discuss the ways in which the political struggle for gay rights has played out in various arenas—in Congress, in the courts, in state and local governments, and in electoral politics.
Forcefully argued and accessibly written, this collection is an important contribution to the current discussion about civil rights for gays and lesbians.
Forcefully argued and accessibly written, this collection is an important contribution to the current discussion about civil rights for gays and lesbians.
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Review by Steve Sanders for The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)
Rating:
Most anything from University of Chicago Press is likely to be of high quality, and this anthology meets that standard. Gay and lesbian politics is an emerging and evolving discipline, and important milestones are occurring in real time. This volume, published in 2000, provides intelligent treatments of current issues but also plenty of context; while solid and scholarly, it mostly eschews the esoterica and pomo-homo preoccupations of many other works on the LGBT politics bookshelf. Chapters include treatments of history, policy, the Christian right, Congress, the Supreme Court, public opinion, and state and local politics. The editors and most of the contributors are well-known scholars and/or writers in political science or related fields (including Ken Wald, John D’Emilio, Craig Rimmerman, Keith Boykin, Didi Herman, Greg Lewis, James Button, Barbara Rienzo, Donald Haider-Markel, and Clyde Wilcox), and this is one of the book’s strongest calling cards. Because it pulls together many topics addressed by some signature authorities in the field (many of whom have written book-length treatments of what appear here as chapters), “The Politics of Gay Rights” was, in my judgment, one of the first books in LGBT political science to be really useful as a core text for an undergraduate college course; I will be using it as such in a seminar on gay/lesbian politics in spring 2002 (please feel free to contact me for more information). But it’s not a heavy-duty tome, so most anyone with serious interest in the subject should find it accessible and valuable.