What do you think?
Rate this book
Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003
A fascinating one-of-a-kind history of the government’s regulation of sexual behavior
From the Pentagon to the wedding chapel, there are few issues more controversial today than gay rights. As William Eskridge persuasively demonstrates in Dishonorable Passions, there is nothing new about this political and legal obsession. The American colonies and the early states prohibited sodomy as the “crime against nature,” but rarely punished such conduct if it took place behind closed doors. By the twentieth century, America’s emerging regulatory state targeted “degenerates” and (later) “homosexuals.” The witch hunts of the McCarthy era caught very few Communists but ruined the lives of thousands of homosexuals. The nation’s sexual revolution of the 1960s fueled a social movement of people seeking repeal of sodomy laws, but it was not until the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) that private sex between consenting adults was decriminalized. With dramatic stories of both the hunted (Walt Whitman and Margaret Mead) and the hunters (Earl Warren and J. Edgar Hoover), Dishonorable Passions reveals how American sodomy laws affected the lives of both homosexual and heterosexual Americans. Certain to provoke heated debate, Dishonorable Passions is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of sexuality and its regulation in the United States.
From the Pentagon to the wedding chapel, there are few issues more controversial today than gay rights. As William Eskridge persuasively demonstrates in Dishonorable Passions, there is nothing new about this political and legal obsession. The American colonies and the early states prohibited sodomy as the “crime against nature,” but rarely punished such conduct if it took place behind closed doors. By the twentieth century, America’s emerging regulatory state targeted “degenerates” and (later) “homosexuals.” The witch hunts of the McCarthy era caught very few Communists but ruined the lives of thousands of homosexuals. The nation’s sexual revolution of the 1960s fueled a social movement of people seeking repeal of sodomy laws, but it was not until the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) that private sex between consenting adults was decriminalized. With dramatic stories of both the hunted (Walt Whitman and Margaret Mead) and the hunters (Earl Warren and J. Edgar Hoover), Dishonorable Passions reveals how American sodomy laws affected the lives of both homosexual and heterosexual Americans. Certain to provoke heated debate, Dishonorable Passions is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of sexuality and its regulation in the United States.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2008
13 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 30, 2021
Thoroughly comprehensive with some really captivating history that every LGBTQ person in the US should know.
May 22, 2022
11/10 stars. would absolutely recommend.
Read
July 28, 2011I 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.
April 2, 2009
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!
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!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews