• Defining family : basics of marriage, domestic partnership, and more
• Money, insurance, name changes, and immigration issues
• Renting a home together
• I'm mom, she's mommy (or I'm daddy, he's papa)
• Medical and financial matters : delegating authority
• Looking ahead : estate planning
• Living together contracts for lesbian and gay couples
• Buying a home together (and other real estate ventures)
• Going separate ways : issues at the end of a relationship
• Help beyond this book.

• Opening arguments, 1970-98
• Sex before marriage : striking down sodomy laws
• Victories, defeats, and a plan to win a marriage, 1996-2009
• The long, winding road to marriage in California, 2004-13
• Hopes rise and DOMA falls, 2007-15
• Closing arguments, 2015
• Looking to the future.

"Victory may sometimes look like a sudden revolution when, in truth, it rests on years of struggle. The June 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is a sweeping victory for the freedom to marry, but it was one step in a long process. Love Unites Us is the history of activists' passion and persistence in the struggle for marriage rights for same-sex couples in the United States, told in the words of those who waged the battle. Launching the fight for the freedom to marry was neither an obvious nor an uncontested strategy. To many activists, achieving marriage equality seemed far-fetched, but the skeptics were proved wrong. Proactive arguments in favor of love, family, and commitment were more effective than arguments that focused on rights and the goal of equality at work. Telling the stories of people who loved and cared for one another, in sickness and in health, cut through the antigay noise and moved people-not without backlash and not overnight, but faster than most activists and observers had ever imagined. With compelling stories from leading attorneys and activists including Evan Wolfson, Mary L. Bonauto, Jon W. Davidson, and Paul M. Smith, Love Unites Us explains how gay and lesbian couples achieved the right to marry"-- Provided by publisher.

• Opening Arguments, 1970-98
• Sex Before Marriage: Striking Down Sodomy Laws
• Victories, Defeats, and a Plan to Win a Marriage, 1996-2009
• The Long, Winding Road to Marriage in California, 2004-13
• Hopes Rise and DOMA Falls, 2007-15
• Closing Arguments, 2015
• Looking to the Future.

"Victory may sometimes look like a sudden revolution when, in truth, it rests on years of struggle. The June 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is a sweeping victory for the freedom to marry, but it was one step in a long process. Love Unites Us is the history of activists' passion and persistence in the struggle for marriage rights for same-sex couples in the United States, told in the words of those who waged the battle. Launching the fight for the freedom to marry was neither an obvious nor an uncontested strategy. To many activists, achieving marriage equality seemed far-fetched, but the skeptics were proved wrong. Proactive arguments in favor of love, family, and commitment were more effective than arguments that focused on rights and the goal of equality at work. Telling the stories of people who loved and cared for one another, in sickness and in health, cut through the antigay noise and moved people-not without backlash and not overnight, but faster than most activists and observers had ever imagined. With compelling stories from leading attorneys and activists including Evan Wolfson, Mary L. Bonauto, Jon W. Davidson, and Paul M. Smith, Love Unites Us explains how gay and lesbian couples achieved the right to marry"-- Provided by publisher.

• Part One: Love
• 1 Indignation
• 2 Irreconcilable Differences
• 3 The Boy from Sandusky
• 4 On the Matter of Family
• Part Two: Law
• 5 The Chicken Farmer's Son
• 6 Winning for Losing
• 7 Case 773
• 8 Agony of Law
• 9 "Minds Have Changed"
• 10 Diagnosis
• 11 "I Do"
• Part Three: Loss
• 12 Duty to Defend
• 13 Good night, Husband
• 14 Twenty-One Years from Midnight
• 15 Seventy-Two Hours
• 16 "All of a Sudden This Family Was Born"
• Part Four: Legacy
• 17 The Rehearsal
• 18 Hearts and Minds
• 19 Being There, Again
• 20 Question Two
• 21 Obergefell v. Hodges
• 22 State Interest
• 23 Sunlight.

"The fascinating and very moving story of the lovers, lawyers, judges and activists behind the groundbreaking Supreme Court case that led to one of the most important, national civil rights victories in decades--the legalization of same-sex marriage. In June 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law in all fifty states in a decision as groundbreaking as Roe v Wade and Brown v Board of Education. Through insider accounts and access to key players, this definitive account reveals the dramatic and previously unreported events behind Obergefell v Hodges and the lives at its center. This is a story of law and love--and a promise made to a dying man who wanted to know how he would be remembered. Twenty years ago, Jim Obergefell and John Arthur fell in love in Cincinnati, Ohio, a place where gays were routinely picked up by police and fired from their jobs. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had to provide married gay couples all the benefits offered to straight couples. Jim and John--who was dying from ALS--flew to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal. But back home, Ohio refused to recognize their union, or even list Jim's name on John's death certificate. Then they met Al Gerhardstein, a courageous attorney who had spent nearly three decades advocating for civil rights and who now saw an opening for the cause that few others had before him. This forceful and deeply affecting narrative--Part Erin Brockovich, part Milk, part Still Alice--chronicles how this grieving man and his lawyer, against overwhelming odds, introduced the most important gay rights case in U.S. history. It is an urgent and unforgettable account that will inspire readers for many years to come"-- Provided by publisher.
"The inspiring true story of the lovers and lawyers behind one of the most important national civil rights victories in decades- the legalization of same-sex marriage in all fifty states"-- Provided by publisher.

• Indignation
• Irreconcilable differences
• The boy from Sandusky
• On the matter of family
• The chicken farmer's son
• Winning for losing
• Case 773
• Agony of law
• "Minds have changed"
• Diagnosis
• "I do"
• Duty to defend
• Good night, Husband
• Twenty-one years from midnight
• Seventy-two hours
• "All of a sudden this family was born"
• The rehearsal
• Hearts and minds
• Being there, again
• Question two
• Obergefell v. Hodges
• State interest
• Sunlight.

"The fascinating and very moving story of the lovers, lawyers, judges and activists behind the groundbreaking Supreme Court case that led to one of the most important, national civil rights victories in decades--the legalization of same-sex marriage. In June 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law in all fifty states in a decision as groundbreaking as Roe v Wade and Brown v Board of Education. Through insider accounts and access to key players, this definitive account reveals the dramatic and previously unreported events behind Obergefell v Hodges and the lives at its center. This is a story of law and love--and a promise made to a dying man who wanted to know how he would be remembered. Twenty years ago, Jim Obergefell and John Arthur fell in love in Cincinnati, Ohio, a place where gays were routinely picked up by police and fired from their jobs. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had to provide married gay couples all the benefits offered to straight couples. Jim and John--who was dying from ALS--flew to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal. But back home, Ohio refused to recognize their union, or even list Jim's name on John's death certificate. Then they met Al Gerhardstein, a courageous attorney who had spent nearly three decades advocating for civil rights and who now saw an opening for the cause that few others had before him. This forceful and deeply affecting narrative--Part Erin Brockovich, part Milk, part Still Alice--chronicles how this grieving man and his lawyer, against overwhelming odds, introduced the most important gay rights case in U.S. history. It is an urgent and unforgettable account that will inspire readers for many years to come"-- Provided by publisher.

• Introduction: Embraced by law
• The plaintiffs
• The movement lawyers
• The proponents
• Getting to trial
• Curtain up
• The right to marry
• A history of discrimination
• Immutability
• Political powerlessness
• The ideal family
• A threat to marriage
• The bare desire to harm
• The phantom witnesses
• The trial court
• The Court of Appeals
• The Supreme Court
• Civil ceremonies
• Epilogue: Epithalamium
• A reader's guide
• An essay from Kenji Yoshino : the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges
• A conversation with Kenji Yoshino.

"A renowned legal scholar tells the definitive story of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the trial that will stand as the most potent argument for marriage equality. In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, rescinding the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. Advocates for marriage equality were outraged. Still, major gay-rights groups opposed a federal challenge to the law, warning that it would be dangerously premature. A loss could set the movement back for decades. A small group of activists, however, refused to wait. They turned to corporate lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies--best known for arguing opposite sides of Bush v. Gore--who filed a groundbreaking federal suit against the law. A distinguished constitutional law scholar, Kenji Yoshino was also a newly married gay man who at first felt ambivalent about the suit. Nonetheless, he recognized that Chief Judge Vaughn Walker's decision to hold a trial in the case was momentous. Boies and Olson rose to the occasion, deftly deploying arguments that LGBT advocates had honed through years of litigation and debate. Reading the 3,000-page transcript, Yoshino discovered a shining civil rights document--the most rigorous and compelling exploration he had seen of the nature of marriage, the political status of gays and lesbians, the ideal circumstances for raising children, and the inability of direct democracy to protect fundamental rights. After that tense twelve-day trial, Walker issued a resounding and historic ruling: California's exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. In June 2013, the United States Supreme Court denied the final appeal in Hollingsworth v. Perry, leaving same-sex couples in California free to marry. Drawing on interviews with lawyers and witnesses on both sides of the case, Yoshino takes us deep inside the trial. He brings the legal arguments to life, not only through his account of the case, but also by sharing his own story of finding love, marrying, and having children. Vivid, compassionate, and beautifully written, Speak Now is both a nuanced and authoritative account of a landmark trial, and a testament to how the clash of proofs in our judicial process can force debates to the ultimate level of clarity"-- Provided by publisher.

• Below-the-radar advocacy
• A public debate on same-sex marriage
• The silent struggle for same-sex parental rights
• Group homes in gridlock : litigation and backlash over group home location
• To tell or not to tell : secrecy or transparency in group home sitings
• Revisiting visibility.

In 1993 the nation exploded into anti-same sex marriage fervor when the Hawaii Supreme Court issued its decision to support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. Opponents feared that all children, but especially those raised by lesbian or gay couples, would be harmed by the possibility of same-sex marriage-and warned of the consequences for society at large. Congress swiftly enacted the Defense of Marriage Act-defining marriage as between a man and a woman-and many states followed suit. By 2006 much of the United States was cloaked in constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage. Almost a decade before the Hawaii court issued their decision, however, several courts in several states had granted gay and lesbian couples co-parenting status-permitting each individual in the couple to be legally recognized as joint parents over their children. By 2006, courts in over half the states had issued decisions supporting gay and lesbian co-parenting-with far less public aggression than on the marriage front. What accounts for the stark difference in reactions to two contemporaneous same-sex family policy fights? This book argues that advocacy visibility has played a significant role in determining whether advocacy efforts become mired in conflict or bypass hostile backlash politics. Same-sex parenting advocates are not alone in crafting low-visibility advocacy strategies to ward off opposition efforts. Those who operate, reside in, and advocate for group homes serving individuals with disabilities have also used below-the-radar strategies to diminish the damage cause by NIMBY (Not in my back yard) responses to their requests to move into single-family neighborhoods. Property owners have resorted to slander, subterfuge, and even arson to discourage group homes from locating in their neighborhoods, and, for some advocates, secrecy provides the best elixir. Together these stories provide a glimpse of the prophylactic and palliative potential of low-visibility advocacy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Below the Radar Advocacy
• 3. A Public Debate on Same-Sex Marriage
• 4. The Silent Struggle for Same-Sex Parental Rights
• 5. Group Homes in Gridlock: Litigation and Backlash over Group Home Location
• 6. To Tell or Not To Tell: Secrecy or Transparency in Group Home Sitings
• 7. Revisiting Visibility
• References.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

In 1993 the nation exploded into anti-same sex marriage fervor when the Hawaii Supreme Court issued its decision to support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. Opponents feared that all children, but especially those raised by lesbian or gay couples, would be harmed by the possibility of same-sex marriage-and warned of the consequences for society at large. Congress swiftly enacted the Defense of Marriage Act-defining marriage as between a man and a woman-and many states followed suit. By 2006 much of the United States was cloaked in constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage. Almost a decade before the Hawaii court issued their decision, however, several courts in several states had granted gay and lesbian couples co-parenting status-permitting each individual in the couple to be legally recognized as joint parents over their children. By 2006, courts in over half the states had issued decisions supporting gay and lesbian co-parenting-with far less public aggression than on the marriage front. What accounts for the stark difference in reactions to two contemporaneous same-sex family policy fights? This book argues that advocacy visibility has played a significant role in determining whether advocacy efforts become mired in conflict or bypass hostile backlash politics. Same-sex parenting advocates are not alone in crafting low-visibility advocacy strategies to ward off opposition efforts. Those who operate, reside in, and advocate for group homes serving individuals with disabilities have also used below-the-radar strategies to diminish the damage cause by NIMBY (Not in my back yard) responses to their requests to move into single-family neighborhoods. Property owners have resorted to slander, subterfuge, and even arson to discourage group homes from locating in their neighborhoods, and, for some advocates, secrecy provides the best elixir. Together these stories provide a glimpse of the prophylactic and palliative potential of low-visibility advocacy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Representing LGBT clients
• Post-Windsor LGBT legal issues
• LGBT relationships in a post-Obergefell world : marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships
• Basic estate planning
• Trusts
• Advance directives
• Estate planning involving non-U.S.-citizen spouses
• Avoiding probate
• Children
• Assisted reproductive technology and estate planning
• Prenuptial agreements and domestic partnership agreements
• Silver threads inside the rainbow : lesbian, gay and transgender seniors
• Public and private benefits (federal and state)
• Odds and ends
• Appendix A. Forms
• Appendix B. Resources.

"Question presented: 1. Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage of two people of the same sex?; 2. Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage of two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?"-- Page i.

Brief of amicus curiae in several related cases seeking certiorari concerning the constitutional rights of same sex couples to marry and to have their marriages recognized in other states.

Brief of amicus curiae in several related cases before the Supreme Court concerning the constitutional rights of same sex couples to marry and to have their marriages recognized in other states.

Argument: Non-recognition laws carry especially harsh consequences for same-sex couples compelled to relocate to respondent states in pursuit of employment opportunities. Currently, there are no federal protections against employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Such discrimination remains prevalent in workplaces across the country. LGBT individuals already face significant employment barriers because of their sexual orientation, including underemployment, underpayment, and high rates of workplace discrimination. Especially because of these baseline disadvantages, LGBT individuals must be able to freely follow available employment opportunities without the risk that doing so will nullify their marriages and legal relationships with their children. LGBT individuals and their families should not be forced to give up the material benefits and symbolic value of marriage in exchange for gainful employment or professional advancement.

• Introduction
• The state of the law for LGBT parents
• Routes to parenthood
• Locating legality
• Parenting before the law
• Parenting with the law
• Parenting against the law
• Conclusion: LGBT parents constructing legality.

In-depth interviews examine the role of the law in the lives of LGBT parents The decision to have a child is seldom a simple one, often fraught with complexities regarding emotional readiness, finances, marital status, and compatibility with life and career goals. Rarely, though, do individuals consider the role of the law in facilitating or inhibiting their ability to have a child or to parent. For LGBT individuals, however, parenting is saturated with legality - including the initial decision of whether to have a child, how to have a child, whether one's relationship with their child will be recognized, and everyday acts of parenting. Through interviews with 137 LGBT parents, Amanda K. Baumle and D'Lane R. Compton examine the role of the law in the lives of LGBT parents and how individuals use the law when making decisions about family formation or parenting. Baumle and Compton explore the ways in which LGBT parents participate in the process of constructing legality through accepting, modifying, or rejecting legal meanings about their families. They conclude that legality is constructed through a complex interplay of legal context, social networks, individual characteristics, and familial desires. Ultimately, the stories of LGBT parents in this book reflect a rich and varied relationship between the law, the state, and the private family goals of individuals.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• To thine own self be true
• Trailblazing advocacy
• Challenging the profession
• "T" is for transgender
• Reflections on progress.

Out and About: The LGBT Experience in the Legal Profession is a collaboration between the American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity ("SOGI") and the National LGBT Bar Association ("LGBT Bar"). Both SOGI and the LGBT went to great lengths to identify and encourage authors to share their stories. This joint publication is an anthology of first person narrative accounts. These moving accounts introduce new insights and perspectives. Out and About is a primer that will inspire new conversations and to shine light where it has not been shined before. This unique book is of interest to both LGBT and non-LGBT readers alike. While developing this book, SOGI and the LGBT Bar sought diversity in all its forms--differing sexual orientation and gender identities as well as differing ages, races, geographic locations, practice settings, law schools, years of experiences, and more. This book's goal is to promote full and equal participation in the legal profession by persons of differing sexual orientations and gender identities. Out and About will explore the significant challenges and barriers that the LGBT community faces in their quest for full acceptance and participation in their chosen fields of legal expertise.This book will educate the legal profession and the general public about the LGBT community, its contributions and its ongoing struggles for equality. Equally as important, Out and About serves as a resource for identification, inspiration and education to the LGBT legal community on how to deal with situations they may face.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I. Before
• The plaintiffs
• The movement lawyers
• The proponents
• Getting to trial
• Part II. The trial
• Curtain up
• The right to marry
• A history of discrimination
• Immutability
• Political powerlessness
• The ideal family
• A threat to marriage
• The bare desire to harm
• The phantom witnesses
• Part III. After
• The trial court
• The Court of Appeals
• The Supreme Court
• Civil ceremonies
• Perry trial chronology
• Marriage equality timeline.

"A renowned legal scholar tells the definitive story of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the trial that will stand as the most potent argument for marriage equality. In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, rescinding the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. Advocates for marriage equality were outraged. Still, major gay-rights groups opposed a federal challenge to the law, warning that it would be dangerously premature. A loss could set the movement back for decades. A small group of activists, however, refused to wait. They turned to corporate lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies--best known for arguing opposite sides of Bush v. Gore--who filed a groundbreaking federal suit against the law. A distinguished constitutional law scholar, Kenji Yoshino was also a newly married gay man who at first felt ambivalent about the suit. Nonetheless, he recognized that Chief Judge Vaughn Walker's decision to hold a trial in the case was momentous. Boies and Olson rose to the occasion, deftly deploying arguments that LGBT advocates had honed through years of litigation and debate. Reading the 3,000-page transcript, Yoshino discovered a shining civil rights document--the most rigorous and compelling exploration he had seen of the nature of marriage, the political status of gays and lesbians, the ideal circumstances for raising children, and the inability of direct democracy to protect fundamental rights. After that tense twelve-day trial, Walker issued a resounding and historic ruling: California's exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. In June 2013, the United States Supreme Court denied the final appeal in Hollingsworth v. Perry, leaving same-sex couples in California free to marry. Drawing on interviews with lawyers and witnesses on both sides of the case, Yoshino takes us deep inside the trial. He brings the legal arguments to life, not only through his account of the case, but also by sharing his own story of finding love, marrying, and having children. Vivid, compassionate, and beautifully written, Speak Now is both a nuanced and authoritative account of a landmark trial, and a testament to how the clash of proofs in our judicial process can force debates to the ultimate level of clarity"-- Provided by publisher.

• Introduction: The plaintiffs
• The movement lawyers
• The proponents
• Getting to trial
• Curtain up
• The right to marry
• A history of discrimination
• Immutability
• Political powerlessness
• The ideal family
• A threat to marriage
• The bare desire to harm
• The phantom witnesses
• The trial court
• The Court of Appeals
• The Supreme Court
• Civil ceremonies
• Epilogue: Epithalamium
• Perry trial chronology
• Marriage equality timeline.

"A renowned legal scholar tells the definitive story of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the trial that will stand as the most potent argument for marriage equality. In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, rescinding the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. Advocates for marriage equality were outraged. Still, major gay-rights groups opposed a federal challenge to the law, warning that it would be dangerously premature. A loss could set the movement back for decades. A small group of activists, however, refused to wait. They turned to corporate lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies--best known for arguing opposite sides of Bush v. Gore--who filed a groundbreaking federal suit against the law. A distinguished constitutional law scholar, Kenji Yoshino was also a newly married gay man who at first felt ambivalent about the suit. Nonetheless, he recognized that Chief Judge Vaughn Walker's decision to hold a trial in the case was momentous. Boies and Olson rose to the occasion, deftly deploying arguments that LGBT advocates had honed through years of litigation and debate. Reading the 3,000-page transcript, Yoshino discovered a shining civil rights document--the most rigorous and compelling exploration he had seen of the nature of marriage, the political status of gays and lesbians, the ideal circumstances for raising children, and the inability of direct democracy to protect fundamental rights. After that tense twelve-day trial, Walker issued a resounding and historic ruling: California's exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. In June 2013, the United States Supreme Court denied the final appeal in Hollingsworth v. Perry, leaving same-sex couples in California free to marry. Drawing on interviews with lawyers and witnesses on both sides of the case, Yoshino takes us deep inside the trial. He brings the legal arguments to life, not only through his account of the case, but also by sharing his own story of finding love, marrying, and having children. Vivid, compassionate, and beautifully written, Speak Now is both a nuanced and authoritative account of a landmark trial, and a testament to how the clash of proofs in our judicial process can force debates to the ultimate level of clarity"-- Provided by publisher.

• Gay pride
• Parents and second parents
• The beginnings of a new perspective
• Be brave, do the right thing
• A very long engagement
• The rest was just dancing
• It's all about Edie, stupid
• Sometimes, prayer works
• Superior dance
• Professor Diamond and Captain Underpants
• Perfectly pleased
• Be our guest
• To de-gay or not to de-gay
• Already married, already gay
• Skim milk
• Equal dignity.

Renowned litigator Roberta Kaplan knew from the beginning that it was the perfect case to bring down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer had been together as a couple, in sickness and in health, for more than forty years-enduring society's homophobia as well as Spyer's near total paralysis from multiple sclerosis. Although the couple was finally able to marry, when Spyer died the federal government refused to recognize their marriage, forcing Windsor to pay a huge estate tax bill. In this gripping, definitive account of one of our nation's most significant civil rights victories, Kaplan describes meeting Windsor and their journey together to defeat DOMA. She shares the behind-the-scenes highs and lows, the excitement and the worries, and provides intriguing insights into her historic argument before the Supreme Court. A critical and previously untold part of the narrative is Kaplan's own personal story, including her struggle for self-acceptance in order to create a loving family of her own. Then Comes Marriage tells this quintessentially American story with honesty, humor, and heart. It is the momentous yet intimate account of a thrilling victory for equality under the law for all Americans, gay or straight.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Basic documents
• Sexuality & liberty
• Sexuality, gender, & equality
• Sexuality, gender, & free speech
• Working
• Coupling
• Parenting.

This casebook on the law of sexual orientation and gender identity weaves historical, sociological, and literary perspectives into the legal material. It provides comprehensive coverage of many significant recent developments, including the Supreme Court's 2013 same-sex marriage cases and the regulatory aftermath of the striking down of the Defense of Marriage Act. This edition also adds new material on the interstate recognition of same-sex couples' marriages, First Amendment claims raised by LGBT rights opponents, and family law disputes between LGBT parents. In addition, it significantly expands its coverage of gender identity issues.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: Freedom of association and the right to exclude
• The model Boy Scout
• In Dale's defense
• The three Gs
• The culture wars
• Dale's case begins
• The Scouts' response
• Judging an "active sodomist"
• Eradicating the "cancer of discrimination"
• A unanimous court
• Preparing for the Supreme Court
• On the supreme stage
• A decision is announced
• Backlash
• Freedom of association after Dale
• Epilogue: "The wrong side of history"

As Americans, we cherish the freedom to associate. However, with the freedom to associate comes the right to exclude those who do not share our values and goals. What happens when the freedom of association collides with the equally cherished principle that every individual should be free from invidious discrimination? This is precisely the question posed in "Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale, " a lawsuit that made its way through the courts over the course of a decade, culminating in 2000 with a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. In "Judging the Boy Scouts of America, " Richard J. Ellis tells the fascinating story of the Dale case, placing it in the context of legal principles and precedents, Scouts' policies, gay rights, and the "culture wars" in American politics. The story begins with James Dale, a nineteen-year old Eagle Scout and assistant scoutmaster in New Jersey, who came out as a gay man in the summer of 1990. The Boy Scouts, citing their policy that denied membership to "avowed homosexuals, " promptly terminated Dale's membership. Homosexuality, the Boy Scout leadership insisted, violated the Scouts' pledge to be "morally straight." With the aid of the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, Dale sued for discrimination. Ellis tracks the case from its initial filing in New Jersey through the final decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the Scouts. In addition to examining the legal issues at stake, including the effect of the Supreme Court's ruling on the law of free association, Ellis also describes Dale's personal journey and its intersection with an evolving gay rights movement. Throughout he seeks to understand the puzzle of why the Boy Scouts would adopt and adhere to a policy that jeopardized the organization's iconic place in American culture--and, finally, explores how legal challenges and cultural changes contributed to the Scouts' historic policy reversal in May 2013 that ended the organization's ban on gay youth (though not gay adults).
(source: Nielsen Book Data)