Author Archives: Katherine Franke

What new politics and ethical imperatives emerge when the rights of lesbian and gay people begin to gain traction, and when the state becomes a partner in defending those newly-won rights?  In Dating the State: The Moral Hazards of Winning … Continue reading →

The Columbia Law School Center for Gender & Sexuality Law Presents: A Symposium Honoring the Contributions of Patricia Williams to the Scholarship and Practice of Gender and Sexuality Law Friday, March 1st, 2013, 9 am – 7 pm Jerome Greene … Continue reading →

The guy who has been the voice and puppeteer for Elmo, Kevin Clash, resigned yesterday from Sesame Workshop on account of recent accusations that he had sex with under age boys.  Maybe he did it, maybe he didn’t – we … Continue reading →

As many now know, CIA Director and retired four-star Army General David Petraeus has resigned his post at the CIA on account of newly emerging information that he had what the media calls an “extra-marital” affair with Paula Broadwell, who … Continue reading →

Rainbow flags and corsages were waving high in front of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village last night.  There’s much to celebrate about the 9th Circuit’s ruling issued yesterday confirming the lower court finding that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.  As … Continue reading →

From today’s New York Times (and the headline wasn’t my choice, I preferred Marriage: It’s Complicated).  It’s hysterical that the Times is running ads for diamond wedding rings right above the Op-ed. Marriage Is a Mixed Blessing WILL the New … Continue reading →

Metro Weekly has the story, but this is outrageous.  Paul Clement, partner at King & Spalding, signed the firm up to represent the House of Representatives in defending DOMA, the agreement between the firm and the government contains a provision … Continue reading →

The twin horizons of many people and organizations in the lesbian and gay community – achieving marriage equality and repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell – seem like obvious civil rights goals.  They both enshrine official, legally sanctioned discrimination against … Continue reading →

Seems that a full-fledged gender-panic may be breaking out.   As if the whole mishigas with Constance McMillen being told she couldn’t wear a tux to her senior prom weren’t enough, now a mom in Maple Shade, New Jersey has … Continue reading →

In case you weren’t able to attend the Symposium we held last Friday at Columbia Law School, recognizing the influence of Judith Butler’s work to the law of gender and sexuality, you can now watch videos of the three panels … Continue reading →

The Prop 8 trial in San Francisco has captivated the homo-imagination, not surprisingly. (Posts about the first couple days here and here.) So this seems like an awkward time to suggest anything critical about the institution of marriage itself (even … Continue reading →

Katherine Franke – cross posted from Gender & Sexuality Law Blog

In my last post I urged heterosexual people to do more than express their condolences to the gay community for the defeat of the marriage equality bill in the New York State Senate last week.   Well, Jamie Frevele, an … Continue reading →

This afternoon, with little advanced notice, the New York State Senate held debate and then voted on a bill that would have amended the state’s marriage law to allow same sex couples to marry.   So short was the notice … Continue reading →

Last October 17th in Italy, the Court of Appeals of Rome issued a sentence declaring that the rape of a sex worker is less punishable than the rape of a woman that does not choose to be a prostitute. The … Continue reading →

The relative silence of a queer – or even a gay – voice in the health care reform debate of the last six months is confounding.   As someone who spent my 20′s and 30′s dealing with close friends and … Continue reading →

The gendering of the current economic downturn was the subject of a page one story in the New York Times today: Still on the Job by Making Only Half as Much, by Louis Uchitelle – but that’s not what Uchitelle … Continue reading →

The White House just announced that it has nominated Georgetown Law Center’s Professor Chai Feldblum as a Commissioner to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.   This is huge not only because Feldblum would be the first out lesbian or gay … Continue reading →

As many will recall, the gold medal performance in the 800 meter track competition by Caster Semenya, a South African athlete, last month at the Berlin World Championships, sparked a”sex panic”when some observers questioned Semenya’s “real” sex.   Well, things … Continue reading →

We learned late last week that David Souter plans to step down from the Supreme Court at the end of this term.   Nominated by President George H. W. Bush in July of 1990 on the expectation that he would … Continue reading →

I returned yesterday from 10 days in Morocco to learn with great sadness of Eve Sedgwick’s passing.     In an odd way, it was fitting that I was in North Africa during her last days – for there are … Continue reading →

Friday the Iowa Supreme Court held unanimously that the state’s definition of marriage – a union of a man and a woman – violated the Iowa Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.   This is the first court to do so unanimously, … Continue reading →

News Flash: the Iowa Supreme Court has announced that it will release its decision in the same sex marriage case, Varnum v. Brien, tomorrow at 8:30 am (CST).   The decision will be available here. – Katherine Franke