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Gender, Sexuality, and the Law
Section 5
1.5 hours

Constructing Sexual Orientation, Sexual Consent, and Sexual Intimacy

Mary R Ziegler

The fight to decriminalize sexual intimacy and undo morals laws offers another crucial example of decriminalization. We will study various actors, including doctors, law enforcement officers, lawyers, and judges, who shaped the fight to decriminalize LGBT Americans by redefining homosexuality and then defining sexual orientation. We will explore how these historical shifts influenced and were reworked by the Supreme Court's decisions. And we will consider the limits of the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)--which focused on private spaces, intimate choices, and the consent of adults--especially at a time when a movement to recriminalize some acts of intimacy has taken hold.

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