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Strangers to the Law
Law, Meaning, and Violence The scope of Law, Meaning, and Violence is defined by the wide-ranging scholarly debates signaled by each of the words in the title. Those debates have taken place among and between lawyers, anthropologists, political theorists, sociologists, and historians, as well as literary and cultural critics. This series is intended to recognize the importance of such ongoing conversations about law, meaning, and violence as well as to encourage and further them. Series Editors: Martha Minow, Harvard Law School Elaine Scarry, Harvard University Austin Sarat, Amherst College
Narrative, Violence, and the Law: The Essays of Robert Cover, edited by Martha Minow, Michael Ryan, and Austin Sarat Narrative, Authority, and Law, by Robin West The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of Community Mediation in the United States, edited by Sally Engle Merry and Neal Milner Legal Modernism, by David Luban Surveillance, Privacy, and the Law: Employee Drug Testing and the Politics of Social Control, by John Gilliom Lives of Lawyers: Journeys in the Organizations of Practice, by Michael J. Kelly Unleashing Rights: Law, Meaning, and the Animal Rights Movement, by Helena Silverstein Law Stories, edited by Gary Bellow and Martha Minow The Powers That Punish: Prison and Politics in the Era of the "Big House," 1920-1955, by Charles Bright Law and the Postmodern Mind: Essays on Psychoanalysis and Jurisprudence, edited by Peter Goodrich and David Gray Carlson Russia's Legal Fictions, by Harriet Murav Strangers to the Law: Gay People on Trial, by Lisa Keen and Suzanne B. Goldberg Butterfly, the Bride: Essays on Law, Narrative, and the Family, by Carol Weisbrod The Politics of Community Policing: Rearranging the Power to Punish, by William Lyons Laws of the Postcolonial, edited by Eve Darian-Smith and Peter Fitzpatrick Whispered Consolations: Law and Narrative in African American Life, by Jon-Christian Suggs Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity, by Ann Arnett Ferguson
Strangers to the Law Gay People on Trial
Lisa Keen and
Suzanne B. Goldberg
Ann Arbor
THE liNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PREss
First paperback edition 2000 Copyright © by the University of Michigan 1998 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America @ Printed on acid-free paper 2003
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A eIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keen, Lisa. Strangers to the law: gay people on trial/Lisa Keen and Suzanne B. Goldberg. p. cm. - (Law, meaning, and violence) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-472-10644-9 (cloth: acid-free paper) 1. Evans, Richard G.-Trials, litigation, etc. 2. Colorado. Governor (1987- : Romer)-Trials, litigation, etc. 3. Gays-Legal status, laws, etc.-Colorado. 4. Gay rights-Colorado. I. Goldberg, Suzanne B. II. Title. III. Series. KF228.E94K44 1998 342·788'087-dc21 97-453 89
elP ISBN
0-472-08645-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN13 978-0-472-10644-8 (cloth) ISBN13 978-0-472-08645-0 (paper) ISBN13 978-0-472-02276-2 (electronic)
For Sheilah McCarthy, with hope and love, Lisa Keen
For Paula and our son Adam, Suzanne B. Goldberg
Contents
Preface ix Chapter 1. The Stakes
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Chapter 2. Prelude to a Trial 17 Chapter 3. The Science of Sexuality 43 Chapter 4. A History of Hate 75 Chapter 5. The Politics of Law 105 Chapter 6. Ci