Overview

Throughout their relatively short history, lesbian and gay movements in the United States have endured searing conflicts over whether to embrace assimilationist or liberationist strategies. The Lesbian and Gay Movements explores this dilemma in both contemporary and historical contexts. Rimmerman tackles the challenging issue of what constitutes movement effectiveness and how effective the assimilationist and liberationist strategies have been in three contentious policy arenas: the military ban, same-sex marriage, and AIDS. Since the first edition in 2007, the landscape of lesbian and gay movements and rights has seen enormous changes. The thoroughly revised second edition includes updated discussion of LGBT movements' undertakings in, as well the Obama administration's response to, HIV/AIDS policy, the fight to legalize same-sex marriage and overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

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9781322367248

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Praise for the prior edition: A lively and provocative book! Rimmerman has done an excellent job in demonstrating the limits of both assimilation and liberation as strategies pursued by the GLBTQ movements. The heart of this book is a richly textured analysis of these core strategies as deployed around the most explosive public policy debates of the last 30 years--AIDS, Gays in the Military and Same Sex Marriage. The Lesbian and Gay Movements is a book that is interesting and valuable to several fields--American politics, public policy, law and society, new social movements, gender studies, and gay and lesbian history. --Gary Lehring, Smith College How did private decisions on sexuality become such a controversial political issue in American politics? Craig Rimmerman's book provides a concise introduction to the development of the gay rights movement and to the related issues of HIV/AIDS policy, gays serving in the military, and same-sex marriage. Avoiding a simplification of these issues as part of a 'culture war, ' Rimmerman provides an explanation that includes the historical development of the issues, a recap of the varying political positions, and an analysis of the political and legal processes that led to today's policies. --Barbara Norrander, University of Arizona Craig Rimmerman has a distinctive gift for clarifying complex events without understating their significance. His ambitious and engaging analysis of the major initiatives of the gay and lesbian movements transcends established boundaries in political science, drawing connections among studies of the presidency, the executive branch bureaucracy, Congress, the courts, gender studies, social movements, federalism, and political mobilization and participation. This is a welcome addition to student reading lists and faculty book collections. --MaryAnne Borrelli, Connecticut College Democratic social movements inevitably divide over what stance to take towar

Author Information

Craig A. Rimmerman is professor of public policy and political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He is the editor of Westview Press's Dilemmas in American Politics series. He is also author of The New Citizenship, From Identity to Politics, and co-editor of The Politics of Gay Rights (with Kenneth A. Wald and Clyde Wilcox).

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