ABSTRACT
The "Homosexual Sodomite Phase," the United States Supreme Court famously declared in Bowers v. Hardwick that there was no right to engage in homosexual sodomy. The "Equal Homosexual Class Phase," the Court in Romer v. Evans cast the legal homosexual as a member of a "class of citizens" whose exclusion from anti-discrimination protections the Constitution could not tolerate. The "Free Intimate Bond Phase," the Court shifted its focus in Lawrence v. Texas to an enduring intimate bond involving private sexual acts protected from government intrusion. The "Dignified Married Couple Phase," the Court in United States v. Windsor validated the decision of several states to "confer" upon homosexuals "a dignity and status of immense import". The chapter argues that while Windsor is indeed a critical development for equal citizenship, it comes with a severe impediment. It utilizes "homosexual" to refer to both gay men and lesbians and details the depictions of the homosexual as male and as female.
