Before Lawrence v. Texas
The Making of a Queer Social Movement
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
2024 Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize, Texas State Historical Association
2024 Award of Merit, The Philosophical Society of Texas Nonfiction Book Prize
The grassroots queer activism and legal challenges that led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in favor of gay and lesbian equality.
In 2003 the US Supreme Court overturned anti-sodomy laws across the country, ruling in Lawrence v. Texas that the Constitution protects private consensual sex between adults. To some, the decision seemed to come like lightning from above, altering the landscape of America’s sexual politics all at once. In actuality, many years of work and organizing led up to the legal case, and the landmark ruling might never have happened were it not for the passionate struggle of Texans who rejected their state’s discriminatory laws.
Before Lawrence v. Texas tells the story of the long, troubled, and ultimately hopeful road to constitutional change. Wesley G. Phelps describes the achievements, setbacks, and unlikely alliances along the way. Over the course of decades, and at great risk to themselves, gay and lesbian Texans and their supporters launched political campaigns and legal challenges, laying the groundwork for Lawrence. Phelps shares the personal experiences of the people and couples who contributed to the legal strategy that ultimately overturned the state’s discriminatory law. Even when their individual court cases were unsuccessful, justice seekers and activists collectively influenced public opinion by insisting that their voices be heard. Nine Supreme Court justices ruled, but it was grassroots politics that vindicated the ideal of equality under the law.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this insightful account, historian Phelps (A People's War on Poverty) examines the legal activism that preceded the Supreme Court's overturning of homosexual criminalization laws in Lawrence v. Texas (2003). He begins with Buchanan v. Batchelor (1970), the "first constitutional challenge to the state sodomy law," which at that point was enforced regardless of sexuality. Partly as a result of that case, the law was made applicable only to those who performed anal or oral sex with members of the same sex. Phelps documents the impact of this change, including increased police harassment of the LGBTQ community, and shows how legal challenges became a major avenue of queer advocacy, noting that Baker v. Wade (1982) was "the first time a federal judge struck down a sodomy statute based on the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian individuals." Though overturned by an appellate court, the decision was "a critical component in the developing legal strategy in the movement for queer equality," Phelps argues, paving the way for a series of cases focused on the state constitution. Scholarly yet accessible, this valuable history reveals that Lawrence v. Texas was less of a "sudden explosion" than "a raging fire fueled by the burning embers of several decades of citizen activism." Photos.
