Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1 The Challenge of Law Mary Bernstein, Anna-Maria Marshall, and Scott Barclay Part I Social Movement Strategies and the Law 2 Deferral of Legal Tactics Ashley Currier 3 Queer Legal Victories Darren Rosenblum 4 Intimate Equality Nicholas Pedriana 5 Deciding Under the Influence? Courtenay W. Daum 6 Parents and Paperwork Susan M. Sterett Part II Activism, Discourse, and Legal Change 7 The Reform of Sodomy Laws From a World Society Perspective David John Frank, Steven A. Boutcher, and Bayliss Camp 8 Like Sexual Orientation? Like Gender? Amy L. Stone 9 Pushing the Envelope Charles W. Gossett 10 Explaining the Differences Marybeth Herald Part III Legal Symbols 11 It Takes (at Least) Two to Tango Shauna Fisher 12 Do Civil Rights Have a Face? Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller 13 A Jury of One's Queers Casey Charles 14 The Gay Divorcee Ellen Ann Andersen Notes References Contributors Index

Promotional Information

These essays highlight the struggle to make the law relevant and responsive to the LGBT community

About the Author

Mary Bernstein is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and co-editor of Queer Families, Queer Politics. Anna-Maria Marshall is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and author of Confronting Sexual Harassment. Scott Barclay is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Albany, SUNY and author of An Appealing Act.

Reviews

This book offers a brilliant introduction to the complexity of the relationship between the law and LGBT issues.
*Social Movement Studies*

Queer Mobilizations: LGBT Activists Confront the Law is an edited volume that reflects the burgeoning voice and growing favorability of the LGBT movement within the world's court systems . . .This collection of essays offers a welcome interdisciplinary supplement to those areas of LGBT scholarship most closely connected to the LGBT movement - namely, queer theory, queer history, and gender studies.
*Law and Politics Book Review*

This volume is a precious contribution to the study of the relationships between the law and contemporary social movements. It should not only interest specialists on LGBT activism, but shouldalso attract a wider audience, including scholars working on legal mobilisation and interactions between thelaw and social movements.
*Social Movement Studies*

Queer Mobilizations is one of precious few volumes that manages to bridge divisions between legal and cultural analysis and between scholarship and partisanship. Brilliantly interdisciplinary, moving fluidly between & theory and empirical-legal analysis, these essays force us to approach law as central to the current struggles over the American erotic landscape. A truly must read!
*Steven Seidman,author of Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life*

This innovative collection of essays delves into the complex relationships between social movements and legal institutions. The essays creatively address the contradictory goals in the battles for social change by LGBT movements and the normalization that can often result from legal decisions. An essential and unique contribution.
*Peter M. Nardi,author of Gay Mens Friendships: Invincible Communities*

What is the complicated relationship between the LGBT movement and the law? The contributors to this fascinating volume offer a rich and thoughtful analysis of this important question by exploring an array of important policy issues. Timely and well written, this book should be of keen interest to teachers, scholars, movement activists, and citizens.
*Craig A. Rimmerman,author of The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilationist or Liberationist?*

“The editors do an excellent job in bringing together a wide variety of work in this field. It is a particularly important addition to the scholarly discourse on activism and social change, where research on the benefits and limitations of legal strategies for social movements is sorely needed.
*American Journal of Sociology*

“This volume will be useful to scholars who want to examine the relationship between legal institutions and social movements generally and to those who want to examine the how [sic] this relationship relates to the LGBT movement specifically... it presents a survey of the range of tactics social movements use to achieve change in legal institutions and the ways legal institutions provide barriers and opportunities for broader social change.
*Mobilization*