Sexual Identities, Queer Politics

In this collection, political and public policy analysts explore the social concerns of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered--what has come to be known as "lgbt" or "queer" politics. Compared to the humanities and to other social sciences, political science has been slow to address this phenomenon. Issues ranging from housing to adoption to laws on sodomy, however, have increasingly raised important political questions about the rights and status of sexual minorities, particularly within liberal democracies such as the United States, and also on an international level. This anthology offers the first comprehensive overview of the study of lgbt politics in political science across the discipline's main subfields and methodologies, and it spotlights lgbt movements in several regions around the world. Focusing on the politics of sexuality with regard to the politics of knowledge, the book presents a discussion of power that will interest all political scientists and others concerned with minority rights and gender as well as with transformation in the relations between public and private.


The articles cover such topics as lgbt power in urban politics, the impact of public opinion on lgbt life, means of effecting legal and political change in the United States, and international differences in lgbt political activism. The authors represent a new cadre of political scientists who are creating an interdisciplinary domain of research that is informed by and in turn generates political activism. They are Dennis Altman, M. V. Lee Badgett, Robert W. Bailey, Mark Blasius, Cathy J. Cohen, Timothy E. Cook, Paisley Currah, Juanita Díaz-Cotto, Jan-Willem Duyvendak, Leonard Harris, Bevin Hartnett, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, David Rayside, Rebecca Mae Salokar, and Alan S. Yang.

"The essays, of wide breadth and high quality, are worthy of a wide audience. The collection will serve as a good introduction to the field of gay and lesbian studies through the entire discipline of political science. Scholars in gay/lesbian studies and in political science, as well as students of social movements and people interested in the political fate of gays and lesbians, will find this collection useful."—Joan C. Tronto, City University of New York

"Political theory is a necessity, especially for activists in new social movements. This timely and fascinating book presents many of the leading political scientists writing such theory about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people today. This book's scope is broad, the issues it covers rage on the front pages of newspapers everyday, and the scholarship here is first rate."—Urvashi Vaid, Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation.

"It is no longer possible to think of sexuality as 'a private matter' with little or nothing to do with the processes of power. Feminist theorists have effectively argued this case with respect to women's rights. And now, lgbt theory has developed to the point where fresh and sometimes strikingly different insights pertaining to sexuality and politics are possible. This anthology is a valuable contribution to this effort."—Ronald J. Hunt, Ohio University