Reviews for Sexual orientation and the law

The average rating for Sexual orientation and the law based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-02-18 00:00:00 Misty Atkinson In Regulating Intimacy (2002), Jean L. Cohen argues for a "reflexive" version of privacy rights that is not essentializing but is normative. Through analysis of arguments about privacy in the areas of reproductive rights, sexual privacy rights, and sexual harassment, Cohen parses out the paradoxes and contradictions in certain arguments about privacy. According to Cohen, "Reflexive law applies procedures to procedures (hence its reflexivity), steering and fostering self-regulation within social institutions" (4). She argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Griswold v. Connecticut that there is a constitutional right to privacy (here, regarding contraception) was the right decision, but that arguments about privacy law are often deeply flawed (9). Chapter One discusses privacy rights regarding abortion. Arguing that a constitutional right to privacy is necessary for women to make decisions (24), Cohen sees two types of privacy: "the right to be let alone" and "decisional privacy," which "are inextricably linked but . . . not identical" (27, 28). Cohen argues that we should redefine terms of privacy and defend the content of those new definitions instead of rejecting wholesale the notion of privacy because it was (and still is) used to support patriarchy, or because it can be harmful to communitarian ethics. Chapter Two seeks to unhinge the notion of privacy from the notion of secrecy or "obligation to conceal," what laws like Don't Ask Don't Tell have made into a "duty to privacy" rather than a "right to privacy" (78). She critiques the personhood defense of privacy, which argues that private sexual acts help constitute identity and should be protected, because "it is overbroad: any activity might be deemed fundamental to one's identity" (99). Rights to privacy for gays and lesbians can be useful if we understand that the rights holder has the right "to choose whether, how, and where to exercise her legally acknowledged agency" (119). If we have a right to privacy, according to Cohen, then we can decide who has access to our decisions, the freedom "to withdraw certain concerns, motives, and personal decisions from public scrutiny and control," no obligation to reveal or justify reasons for choices, and the right to discuss reasons for choices to others (120).

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-19 00:00:00 Paul Silano Every parent should read this. It sharpens our ability to understand how perps get access to children and once they have access, how they lure them. The subject makes this a very difficult book to read, I won't lie. Leberg uses non-academic wording so it's approachable for us layfolk. A careful reading of this can potentially save more kids from this travesty. I wish this topic was included in parenting classes. Parents can easily get access to the signs of abuse in children. For teenagers, some parents are learning how to spot suicidal thoughts so they can prevent that. This book teaches how to spot behaviours in potential child molesters. It doesn't encourage witch hunting, but it does give practical tools to protect more at risk children before something tragic happens.