Library Research Guides: ENG 286: The Gay 1990s and Beyond: Legislation, Legal Decisions, & Public Policy Resources

Key Databases

HeinOnline LGBTQ+ Rights
This collection charts the gay rights movement in America, showing the civil rights codified into law in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the inequalities that still exist today. Content is grouped into 6 areas of focus: Marriage and Family, Employment Discrimination, Military Service, AIDS and Health Care, Public Spaces and Society, Supreme Court Briefs, and Historical Attitudes and Analysis.
Congress.gov
From the Library of Congress. Legislative histories 1973 to present. Can be used to get a detailed timeline of a bill’s journey through Congress. Search by bill number or public law number

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
U.S. bills, laws, regulations and some Congressional hearing testimony, 1988 to present.
Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
Legal encyclopedias & legal analysis, federal and state court cases and statutes, and law reviews, 1789 to present. Also includes US and foreign newspapers, 1980s to present (dates of coverage vary).

Oyez
Browse Supreme Court cases by issue or term. Free multimedia archive from Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (LII), Justia, and Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Politics Collection This link opens in a new window
Journal articles, think-tank reports, working papers. Comprised of four political science databases, which can also be searched individually: PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service), Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Political Science Database, and Policy File Index
Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window
Current news on all branches of the military and government, with cover-to-cover full text of nearly 300 journals and many historical documents. Dates of coverage vary

For more resources, see the Find U.S. Law & Government Resources page of our Political Science research guide.

Queers in Court: Gay Rights Law and Public Policy by Susan Gluck Mezey
Publication Date: 2007
Combines analyses of nearly three hundred cases from both federal and state courts with detailed explorations of the paths these issues have taken through legislative and executive bodies.
Gay Priori: A Queer Critical Legal Studies Approach to Law Reform by Libby Adler
Publication Date: 2018
Offers a critique of the mainstream LGBT legal agenda in the United States, arguing that LGBT equal rights discourse drives legal advocates toward a narrow array of reform objectives that do little to help the lives of the most marginalized members of the LGBT community.
Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America by Nathaniel Frank
Publication Date: 2017
Tells the dramatic story of how an idea that once seemed unfathomable--and for many gays and lesbians undesirable--became a legal and moral right in just half a century.
Sexual Injustice: Supreme Court Decisions from Griswold to Roe by Marc Stein
Publication Date: 2010
Focusing on six major Supreme Court cases during the 1960s and 1970s, the author examines the generally liberal rulings on birth control, abortion, interracial marriage, and obscenity in Griswold, Eisenstadt, Roe, Loving, and Fanny Hill alongside a profoundly conservative ruling on homosexuality in Boutilier that upheld an immigration statute classifying homosexuals as "psychopathic personalities."

LGBTQ History in Government Documents: Timeline of Documents
A selection of primary sources documenting the U.S. federal government's stance on issues related to the LGBT movement from the 1800s to the present day.
Compiling a Federal Legislative History: A Beginner’s Guide
A comprehensive research guide on finding federal legislative history documents, including congressional committee reports and hearings, presidential signing statements, and the debates of Congress. From the Library of Congress