Customer Reviews

Gay and Lesbian Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook

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This book is part of a series of all kinds of minorities and their political participation. This is the second great book on gay voter behavior that I've found from Haider-Markel. This book discusses the history of American gay rights, gay voting traits, and gay/lesbian officials in office. Though I found this book in a university library, I think the book would be quite accessible to non-academic readers. You can tell the editors did much numbers-crunching and studies-summarizing. There are no photos or charts here, which is a shame. This is a survey book and those knowledgeable about gay rights or gay studies may be frustrated. For example, presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was an outspoken foe of gay rights, yet this is not mentioned here. In discussing gays in the judicial branch, nothing is mentioned of BJ Cruz, the openly gay Supreme Court justice in Guam. The status of gay rights and gay voters keeps morphing, so I hope the editors keep printing updates of their text. All in all, this was a decent introduction to the topic.