Georgetown Law Professor David Cole has a terrific review of my new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas (Norton) in the April 5 issue of the NYRB. Cole presents the basic background, including what likely happened the night John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested for the crime of “Homosexual Conduct,” a Texas law that forbade […]
Archive | Sexual Orientation
Speaking Engagements for Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas
By Dale Carpenter on March 13, 2012 6:49 pm in Civil Rights, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Flagrant Conduct: Lawrence v. Texas, Gay Rights, Sexual Orientation
Over the next couple of months I will be on an active speaking tour for my new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, which has just been published by W.W. Norton & Co. Of perhaps greatest interest to readers of this blog are a couple of events coming up soon. This Friday, March 16, […]
Killings of Gay and “Emo” Youths in Iraq
By Eugene Volokh on March 13, 2012 4:52 pm in Religion and the Law, Sexual Conduct Restrictions, Sexual Orientation
From Radio Free Europe: Since the start of this year, death squads have been targeting two separate groups — gay men, and those who dress in a distinctive, Western-influenced style called “emo,” which some Iraqis mistakenly associate with homosexuality. At least 14 young men have been bludgeoned to death in the last three weeks in […]
Viewpoint Discrimination in K-12 School Library Filtering
By Eugene Volokh on February 16, 2012 5:21 pm in Cyberspace Law, Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools, Freedom to Gather Information, Gay Rights, Sexual Orientation
As I’ve said before, the Supreme Court has never decided whether K-12 schools may remove books from school libraries based on their viewpoints, or may filter out Web sites based on their viewpoints. The Court’s cases dealing with this question, Board of Ed. v. Pico and U.S. v. American Library Ass’n were badly splintered and […]
More on Gay Marriage Bans and Judicial Minimalism
By Ilya Somin on February 12, 2012 5:57 am in Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Same-Sex Marriage, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Orientation
In a thoughtful recent post, co-blogger Dale Carpenter takes issue with my argument that bans on same-sex marriage are best attacked on the grounds that they are unconstitutional sex discrimination, and parts of my post suggesting that a minimalist strategy in the gay marriage litigation is not likely to work. Dale is one of the […]
Spanking Judges as a Rational Basis for Prop 8
By Dale Carpenter on February 11, 2012 1:36 am in Equal Protection, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
In the ongoing search for a constitutionally minimal justification for Prop 8, Orin proposes a creative one — repudiating activist judges independent of the substantive merits of the amendment: One rational reason to support a symbolic law like Prop 8 would be to issue a rebuke to the California Supreme Court that issued that decision, with […]
Student Writing Competition, Hosted at UCLA, on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
UCLA hosts the journal Dukeminier Awards: Best Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law Review Articles. (Many of our lawyer readers have seen Jesse Dukeminier’s work in their property and wills and trusts classes; he was a leading casebook author and scholar in both fields.) The journal mostly reprints articles that it selects from those published […]
More on the Gay Athletic Group’s First Amendment Right to Limit the Number of Straight Players on a Team
As I noted in June, a district court held that, under Boy Scouts v. Dale, a gay athletic group had a First Amendment right to limit the number of straight players on a team, since that was necessary for it to convey its expressive message. The court has now issued a new opinion (Apilado v. […]
Complaint Against Religiously Themed Residential Drug-and-Alcohol Recovery Program: “The Respondent … Teaches Against Homosexuality”
That’s part of the Louisville Human Relations Commission complaint filed by the Lexington Fair Housing Council (a local nonprofit) last year against Teen Challenge; the nonprofit also alleged that Teen Challenge discriminates based on sexual orientation in housing. The full allegation: The Respondent provides housing in Lexington, Kentucky that is open to individuals of all […]
Pakistan Senate Condemns Gay and Lesbian Event at U.S. Embassy
The Nation (Pakistan) reports: The Senate Friday severely condemned the hosting of a gay pride ceremony by US embassy in Pakistan last month and sent the matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs for taking any possible action. The committee will see whether the parliament had the jurisdiction to debate the issue in […]
Gay Athletic Group Has First Amendment Right to Limit the Number of Straight Players on a Team
By Eugene Volokh on June 3, 2011 5:36 pm in Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Sexual Orientation
From Apilado v. North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, 2011 WL 2148816 (W.D. Wash. May 31): This case arises from the disqualification of a softball team from the 2008 Gay Softball World Series (GSWS). The event was operated by Defendant North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA) and attended by Plaintiffs Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles, […]
Are Children Born to and Raised by Lesbians More Likely To Engage in Same-Sex Sexual Activity?
There’s long been something of a debate about this question, and I thought I’d note an interesting and apparently quite credible article touching on it, Nanette K. Gartrell, Henny M. W. Bos & Naomi G. Goldberg, Adolescents of the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Sexual Orientation, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Risk Exposure, Archives of […]
DOMA Section 3 Unconstitutional, Says Massachusetts District Court
By Dale Carpenter on July 8, 2010 5:41 pm in Federalism, Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation, Spending Clause
That’s the decision this afternoon, based on equal protection principles applied to the federal government through the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 established a federal definition of marriage for the first time. This meant that the federal government could refuse to grant validly married same-sex […]
San Jose State University Continues to Suspend All Blood Drives on Campus
Why? Apparently based on the view that the FDA’s ban on donation by men who have had sex with men since 1977 violates the school’s antidiscrimination policy. Now I’m not sure whether the FDA policy is sound. Gay and bisexual males are apparently 44 times more likely to be infected with HIV than straight men, […]
Add Bad Ethics to the Problems of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?
By Dale Carpenter on April 6, 2010 5:29 pm in Afghanistan, Don't Tell (DADT), Executive Branch, Military, Sexual Orientation
My colleague Richard Painter, former chief ethics counsel to President Bush, thinks so because it “institutionalizes dishonesty.” Last fall, he sent a letter outlining his concerns to President Obama, whose administration has been lumbering toward pushing for a congressional repeal. “It is the only instance I know of,” writes Painter, “in which an employee of the United States government […]