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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.

A stronger conception of lesbian & gay rights is needed than is offered under the rubrics of liberty & of the right of privacy. Lesbian & gay rights are analyzed in terms of claims for: (1) the decriminalization of private, consensual homosexual acts between adults; (2) protection against invidious discrimination; & (3) the recognition of the ethical & social status of lesbian & gay relationships & associations. A political-ethical framework in which conceptions of autonomy, equality, & community are mutually developed is provided, & the uses & limits of privacy, the individual liberty vs community morality debate, constitutional morality, & the ambiguities of community are discussed. It is concluded that the respect for human equality & moral autonomy that underlies claims of individual rights locates persons in diverse & interacting social contexts & insists on the primacy of mutual respect as the governing norm encompassing community of right. D. Dennis

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.