From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation

(Paperback)

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Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.

Reviews

Ball revels in a handful of important legal victories, while also delving deeply into the personal stories of each case, resulting in a richly textured account that is part history book, part colorful reportage. Beth Greenfield, Time Out New York

While the gay and lesbian rights movement had its start in 1969 at the Stonewall in New York City, it has yet to have a book tell the story of its poster children and the legal struggles in which they fought. This volume amply fills this void. . . . Well written, exciting, and fun to read.Choice Magazine

Ball dramatically resurrects each case, bringing together opposing attorneys and litigants to show how ordinary human conflict can translate to extraordinary civil rights gain. This groundbreaking book is crucial if we are to understand the history of the rights we take for granted.Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Project director for GLAD, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders

Ball approaches his subject with vigor and sensitivity and makes a poignant plea for justice.Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Carlos A. Ball is professor of law at the Rutgers Uni-versity School of Law (Newark). He has written exten-sively on LGBT rights issues, is the author of The Morality of Gay Rights, and has received a Dukeminier Award from UCLA's Williams Institute for excellence in sexual orientation and the law scholarship. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.