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AbstractLesbian and gay rights are argued as rights to privacy, rights to protection from violence, rights to equality as individuals, rights to equality as family units, rights of minorities or as part of a larger framework of the recognition of sexual diversity within the society. In the last decades Canadian law has recognized equality claims, first through the reform of antidiscrimination laws and later through the interpretation of the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The major current issue, important because it involves lesbian and gay visibility, is the recognition of same-sex couples for the range of rights, obligations and benefits connected with marriage or heterosexual cohabitation. Recognition is occurring through ad hoc reforms, often in response to litigation or to decisions of human rights tribunals.

This book examines why the US and Canada have produced such divergent policy outcomes in affording rights to their gay and lesbian citizens. Smith's contribution will prove vital as movements for lesbian and gay rights continue to recast the social landscape in North America and beyond.

A lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endean?one of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC!Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean's autobiographical chronicle, completed shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state capital to the

My Minnesota roots -- Pushing the pedals of power : from Minnesota to the gay rights national lobby -- Money talks : gay and lesbian political clout and the founding of the Human Rights Campaign Fund -- We've met the enemy-- and the enemy is us : internal conflicts can be far more painful than fighting homophobes -- Beginning again : building an effective capacity to generate grassroots mail to Congress -- Speak out -- If it ain't broken-- : demonstrating a need for the gay and lesbian rights legislation -- One-to-one lobbying -- Do dog and pony shows make a difference? : how much do hearings really matter? -- Thoughts on fund-raising -- Of battles lost and opportunities missed -- Bedfellows make strange politics : of hypocrisy and honesty, coming out and "outing" -- The politics of self-indulgence? : a self-confessed "insider" assesses his experience with protest activities -- Wrapping up a movement career : retiring on disability, acknowledgement, and-- victory!

In this article I examine lesbians' and gay men's attitudes towards the legal recognition of same-sex relationships, using the theoretical framework of legal consciousness. I first provide a brief overview of the legal consciousness literature, before outlining some of the critiques of legal consciousness. Lesbian and gay legal consciousness is then examined through an analysis of qualitative responses to a large-scale online study of perceptions of and attitudes towards same-sex marriage and the legal recognition or regulation of same-sex relationships. Responses are analysed using thematic analysis to elaborate on five main themes within these data: formal equality, the relationship between legal and social change, the naming of legally recognized same-sex relationships, human rights discourse and citizenship claims. I argue that legal consciousness studies can help to interrogate the pervasiveness of discourses around formal equality and discrimination in the ways in which lesbians and gay men think about, use and position themselves in relation to law.