From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation (Queer Action/Queer Ideas Book) [Kindle Edition]

Michael Bronski (Author), Carlos A. Ball (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

The advancement of LGBT rights has occurred through struggles large and small-on the streets, around kitchen tables, and on the Web. Lawsuits have also played a vital role in propelling the movement forward, and behind every case is a human story: a landlord in New York seeks to evict a gay man from his home after his partner of ten years dies of AIDS; school officials in Wisconsin look the other way as a gay teenager is repeatedly and viciously harassed by other students; a lesbian couple appears unexpectedly at a clerk's office in Hawaii seeking a marriage license.

Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.

Over the last twenty years, no group of attorneys has helped to transform this country more than LGBT rights lawyers, and surprisingly, their collective accomplishments have received relatively little attention. Ball remedies that by exploring how a band of largely unheralded civil rights lawyers have attained remarkable legal victories through skill, creativity, and perseverance.

In this richly layered and multifaceted account, Ball vividly documents how these judicial victories have significantly altered LGBT lives today in ways that were unimaginable only a generation ago.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ball (The Morality of Gay Rights), Rutgers professor of law, offers an in-depth analysis of the five lawsuits that have moved America closer to full legal equality for LGBT people. The groundbreaking legal decisions include Nabozny v. Podlesny (1996), in which a seventh-grader received such brutal bullying and beatings that he required abdominal surgery successfully sued his school for discrimination in refusing to protect him, after they claimed the brutal treatment was his fault because he was openly gay, and Romer v. Evans (also 1996), in which a lesbian policewoman's fellow officers harassed her and ignored her calls for backup in dangerous situations. Ball does an excellent job of showcasing the stories of the lawyers, activists, and defendants involved. He points out that although these cases were essential to get the process started, until marriage equality is protected under federal law and don't ask, don't tell is repealed, there is yet a long way to go. The tone of this book sets it apart from similar studies; Ball approaches his subject with vigor and sensitivity and makes a poignant plea for justice. (June)
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Review

We owe Carlos Ball a debt for his uniquely illuminating account of gay rights litigation. He is a balladeer of the hitherto unsung heroes who litigated the major gay rights cases as well as a legal expert who is instinctively alert to law's reasons and contingencies. Perhaps only Ball could have given us a book on this topic that so delights and instructs.—Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law

A prolific author and eminent legal scholar, Carlos Ball deftly and accessibly tells the rich and fascinating stories about the clients and lawyers whose cases have transformed LGBT life in the United States. Timely and deeply relevant, From the Closet to the Courtroom is a powerful testament to the role our lawyers and courts can play in creating social change."—Nancy D. Polikoff, Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, and author of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage

"A timely chronicle of how key legal battles reflect and raise the visibility of sexual minorities and compel society to take seriously their claims to equal citizenship. By revealing the people and stories behind some of the most far-reaching court cases in the history of the LGBT rights struggle, it brings alive the impact of litigation."—Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, University of California-Santa Barbara, and author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America

"This powerful book is a long-overdue tribute to the lawyers and activists whose work has changed many lives and resulted in landmark legal victories. Professor Ball dramatically resurrects each case, bringing together opposing attorneys and litigants to show how ordinary human conflict can translate to extraordinary civil rights gain. This groundbreaking book is crucial if we are to understand the history of the rights we take for granted, achieved by ...

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Product Details

• File Size: 461 KB
• Print Length: 297 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0807000787
• Publisher: Beacon Press (June 1, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004Z1TBSW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #815,293 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #63 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Law > Perspectives on Law > Gender & the Law
  • #63 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Law > Perspectives on Law > Gender & the Law
  • #87 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Law > Constitutional Law > Discrimination

More About the Author

Carlos A. Ball is Professor of Law at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark). He was born in 1964 in Caracas, Venezuela. He has written extensively on LGBT rights issues. He lives with his partner Richard Storrow and their two children in Brooklyn, New York.