This course focuses on how the law addresses many of the most contested contemporary issues concerning sexual orientation. It explores issues across many traditional legal domains, including constitutional, criminal, family, and anti-discrimination law. Topics include, for example, the regulation of sexual conduct, discrimination in the military and in the Boy Scouts, the law concerning sexual minorities as parents, conflicts between sexual and religious freedom, and the role of direct democracy in shaping sexual orientation law. Special attention is paid to the unfolding debate on same-sex marriage. In addition to looking at a range of issues relating to lesbians and gay men, the course considers emerging sexual identities such as transsexuality and intersexuality. It maintains an interdisciplinary focus throughout as it looks at how social, cultural, and political forces shape, and are shaped by, legal doctrine. It is also attentive to how gender structures sexual orientation debates.