Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003

by William N. Eskridge Jr.

"In Dishonorable Passions the distinguished legal scholar William N. Eskridge Jr. examines the remarkable chronicle of sodomy legislation and its legacy today. Although the American colonies and the early states prohibited sodomy as "the crime against nature," they rarely punished such conduct if it was between consenting adults behind closed doors, By 1900, however, with the growth of urban areas, increased immigration, and the newly coined category of "homosexual," the emerging regulatory state began to target elements it considered "degenerates." During the McCarthy era, the slate essentially declared war of "homosexual" sodomites. The anti - homosexual campaign of the 1950s and the sexual revolution of the 1960s fueled a social movement that sought to overturn consensual sodomy laws. In a dramatic and unpredictable story, the campaign against sodomy laws was not successful until a conservative Supreme Court buried them for good in Lawrence v. Texas (2003)." Featuring vivid portraits of both the hunted (including such figures as Walt Whitman, Margaret Mead, and Bayard Rustin) and the hunters (Anthony Comstock, Earl Warren, and J. Edgar Hoover), dishonorable passions is a landmark account of a seldom investigated but fascinating aspect of our history and a key battlefront in the struggle for personal freedom.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Sexuality, Law, Politics

528 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Alok Vaid-Menon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly comprehensive with some really captivating history that every LGBTQ person in the US should know.

[Anna Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

11/10 stars. would absolutely recommend.

[Sarah]

I have very mixed feelings about this book - on one hand, I can see why it won a Stonewall book award - it is remarkably comprehensive. On the other hand, it was very dense and kinda boring. I mean, I love queer history as much as the next gal, but this was tough slaying to get through - particularly the first few chapters. The last four chapters were the best. I'm sure this book will be useful for academics, but I'm not really sure that it deserves a Stonewall book award. This isn't a book that the average person who doesn't have a strong background in history and queer studies is going to get very far in.

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, excellently written, and well researched and documented. It tells the story of how far we've come, how much further we have to go, and how tenuous it all is. Read the Philip Roth book if your imagination can't get you there.

As a fully-articulated gay man, I forget how recent it was that my very existence made me a "presumptive criminal" in many states. In fact, it hadn't occurred to me that I had committed felonies in so many places!

Keep the people in the brown shirts away!

[Michael]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...