Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights

Abstract

With three editors, six sections, and twenty-three chapters, Creating Change is a massive achievement. Among a growing field of collections in queer history and politics, it stands out. As no other, this weighty volume demonstrates the complexity and diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender struggles for equality. Explicitly and more often implicitly, it catalogs the great variety of ideologies and the vast number of disputes across queer communities. It thus evidences the impossibility of a unitary movement, even as it insists that in the face of disillusionment, in the words of Rep. Barney Frank, “the most important thing for us to do is to engage fully in the political process.” As its chief strength, this collection shows that battles for justice are fought on many fronts. Absent comprehensive federal legislation on sexual orientation and gender identity akin to 1964's Civil Rights Act, queer Americans must combat multiple forms of discrimination at the local, state, regional, and—as is the primary focus here—national levels. With impressive sweep, contributors address party politics, presidential administrations, the Supreme Court, private and public employment, identity formation, advocacy organizations, health care, school reform, antiviolence projects, immigration, the military, and domestic partnership. In her excellent essay on lesbian and gay parenting, Nancy D. Polikoff explains just how intricate one area of reform can be. Though custody and visitation rights for parents who come out after marriage remain at the fore, planned lesbian and gay families are establishing new and contradictory legal precedents around

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