Law, Gender, and Sexuality

This course explores the ways in which the law constructs and regulates gender and sexuality. Topics covered include: criminal and civil prohibitions on sex; constitutional equality based on sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation; employment discrimination based on sex (including sexual harassment), gender identity, and sexual orientation; and family law, including marital and nonmarital relationships and parent-child relationships. Class materials include case law, case documents, press accounts, legal scholarship, and sources from other academic disciplines.  It is hard to think of an area of law more critical and dynamic than this one, and this course aims to provide a sense of where the law in this area comes from, and where it is going and why.