Law, Religion and Homosexuality


Book Description

Law, Religion and Homosexuality is the first book-length study of how religion has shaped, and continues to shape, legislation that regulates the lives of gay men and lesbians . Through a systematic examination of how religious discourse influences the making of law – in the form of official interventions made by faith communities and organizations, as well as by expressions of faith by individual legislators – the authors argue that religion continues to be central to both enabling and restricting the development of sexual orientation equality. Whilst some claim that faith has been marginalized in the legislative processes of contemporary western societies, Johnson and Vanderbeck show the significant impact of religion in a number of substantive legal areas relating to sexual orientation including: same-sex sexual relations, family life, civil partnership and same-sex marriage, equality in employment and the provision of goods and services, hate speech regulation, and education. Law, Religion and Homosexuality demonstrates the dynamic interplay between law and religion in respect of homosexuality and will be of considerable interest to a wide audience of academics, policy makers and stakeholders.




Homosexuality and the Law


Book Description

This reference work provides important information about the role academic research has played in the ever-evolving laws covering homosexuality. A comprehensive overview of homosexuality and the law, this fascinating dictionary opens with a history of the Gay Rights Movement which started in Germany during the l860s with Karl Heinrich Ulrich, the "Grandfather of Gay Liberation," who wrote 12 books including, Researches on the Riddle of Love Between Men. Homosexuals were later herded into Nazi concentration camps, where 50,000 of them died. When the war ended, Allied commanders forced homosexuals to finish their prison sentences. This book has 112 entries on subjects such as absurd sex laws, the Crittendon Report, the Boy Scouts, the l996 Defense of Marriage Act, surgical alterations, discrimination, sodomy, loitering, wills, and more. A nearly 100 page appendix details state and local laws. The book includes a list of advocacy organizations and other references, a table of cases, and an extensive bibliography.




Homosexuality and the Law


Book Description

A fascinating exploration of how the law--as viewed and decided by the courts--often embodies fear and prejudice against homosexuality, and thereby, becomes the instrument for discrimination. This valuable book covers a wide range of subjects, illustrating the extent to which the lives of gay persons are touched by these laws and providing a highly critical examination of the response by the American judicial system to our claims for equal protection under the law. Leading law professors and practicing lawyers address the important legal issues and court decisions relevant to male and female homosexuality--criminal punishment for gay sex acts, employment discrimination, child custody, gay organizational rights, and more.




The Case for Same-sex Marriage


Book Description

Third, same-sex marriage would help civilize America. A civilized polity assures equality for all its citizens. Without full access to the institutions of civic life, gays and lesbians cannot be full participants in the American experience. Gays and lesbians love their country, and have contributed in every way to its flourishing.




The Homosexual(ity) of Law


Book Description

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Sexual Orientation and the Law


Book Description

This book gives an overview of how the laws of the time affect lesbians and gay men in how they go about their lives.




Gay Rights and American Law


Book Description

Table of contents




Out and about


Book Description

Out and About: The LGBT Experience in the Legal Profession is a compilation of stories about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender attorneys, academics, and jurists in the profession, through their own words.




Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights


Book Description

Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights is the first book-length study of the Court’s jurisprudence in respect of sexual orientation. It offers a socio-legal analysis of the substantial number of decisions and judgments of the Strasbourg organs on the wide range of complaints brought by gay men and lesbians under the European Convention on Human Rights. Providing a systematic analysis of Strasbourg case law since 1955 and examining decades of decisions that have hitherto remained obscure, the book considers the evolution of the Court’s interpretation of the Convention and how this has fashioned lesbian and gay rights in Europe. Going beyond doctrinal analysis by employing a nuanced sociological consideration of Strasbourg jurisprudence, Paul Johnson shows how the Court is a site at which homosexuality is both socially constructed and regulated. He argues that although the Convention is conceived as a ‘living instrument’ to be interpreted ‘in the light of present-day conditions’ the Court’s judgments have frequently forged and advanced new social conditions in respect of homosexuality. Johnson argues that the Court’s jurisprudence has an extra-legal importance because it provides an authoritative and powerful discursive resource that can be mobilized by lesbians and gay men to challenge homophobic and heteronormative social relations in contemporary societies. As such, the book considers how the Court’s interpretation of the Convention might be evolved in the future to better protect lesbian and gay rights and lives.




Making Gay Okay


Book Description

Why are Americans being forced to consider homosexual acts as morally acceptable? Why has the US Supreme Court accepted the validity of same-sex "marriage", which, until a decade ago, was unheard of in the history of Western or any other civilization? Where has the "gay rights" movement come from, and how has it so easily conquered America? The answers are in the dynamics of the rationalization of sexual misbehavior. The power of rationalization-the means by which one mentally transforms wrong into right-drives the gay rights movement, gives it its revolutionary character, and makes its advocates indefatigable. The homosexual cause moved naturally from a plea for tolerance to cultural conquest because the security of its rationalization requires universal acceptance. In other words, we all must say that the bad is good. At stake in the rationalization of homosexual behavior is the notion that human beings are ordered to a purpose that is given by their Nature. The understanding that things have an in-built purpose is being replaced by the idea that everything is subject to man's will and power, which is considered to be without limits. This is what the debate over homosexuality is really about-the Nature of reality itself. The outcome of this dispute will have consequences that reach far beyond the issue at hand. Already America's major institutions have been transformed-its courts, its schools, its military, its civic institutions, and even its diplomacy. The further institutionalization of homosexuality will mean the triumph of force over reason, thus undermining the very foundations of the American Republic.