Sexuality and the Law: Introduction to the Issue


SEXUALITY AND THE LAW:
INTRODUCTION TO THE ISSUE

It is not every year that fifty-six professors at one's law school join
together to submit a brief to the Supreme Court. This law school's recent
brief in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, No 04-
1152 (2005), demonstrates the mounting tension around questions of
sexuality and sexual expression in contemporary American culture, and the
pressing need for the law to accommodate the asking of those questions.
From the outcry that followed President Bush's call for a constitutional
amendment protecting heterosexual marriage in 2004 to the record-breaking
release last month of Brokeback Mountain, the first gay romance film to
receive wide release, this year has been marked by persistent reminders
about the need to explore the issues surrounding sexuality.

In an effort to encourage that discussion, we are pleased to host a
symposium entitled "Sexuality and the Law" on February 24, 2006. We
look forward to welcoming the many scholars who have contributed to this
volume and will contribute to the panel discussions on "Children and
Education," "The Interplay Between Disability and Sexuality," "Prison and
Punishment," "Sexuality and Marriage," and "Sexual Expression." We are
especially pleased that Professor William Eskridge will join us to give the
keynote address.

We are proud that all of the faculty moderators at this symposium
were among the fifty-six professors who signed the brief that is now
pending, and grateful for the continued support that Columbia has given to
this journal and to gender and sexuality scholarship in general. While, like
all law schools, we could use a few more courses in these areas, the ongoing
support of this law school fosters critical inquiry into these concerns and
produces lawyers with the tools to engage important questions on both a
social and a legal level.

Whatever the results of Rumsfeld v. FAIR, the Columbia Journal of
Gender and Law is thankful, to our own faculty as well as the visiting
scholars who will join us for this event, for their commitment to
encouraging dialogue about sexuality and the law. We look forward to the
panel discussions that will ensue from the papers presented in this volume,
and hope that this symposium will contribute to the development of a "do
ask, do tell" model of open conversation about sexuality and its complicated
relationship to the law.

Lucy Jane Lang
Editor-in-Chief



CHILDREN AND EDUCATION