Before Lawrence v. Texas

Wesley Phelps tells the compelling story of how Texas’s sodomy law—which rendered all homosexuals presumptive criminals—served as the cornerstone for discrimination in employment and housing, as well as the cause of harassment from police, gangs of teenage boys, and generic bullies. Yet, as Phelps shows in this well-researched book, it was in response to the sodomy law that gay and lesbian Texans waged a heroic struggle for equal rights. At a time when those hard-won rights are threatened, Before Lawrence v. Texas serves as a reminder of how crucial grassroots organizing, lobbying, and litigation are in the fight for LGBTQ equality.

~Lillian Faderman, California State University, Fresno, author of The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle

Wesley Phelps has written a fascinating and much-needed history of the political and legal developments that confronted the gay and lesbian community in Texas from the 1960s to the 1990s. It's a story of repression and resistance told in a compelling and accessible way. Through interviews and archival spadework, the author has brought to life the mostly forgotten people and organizations that helped lay the foundations for the successful challenge to the state sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas.

~Dale Carpenter, Southern Methodist University, author of Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas

In Before Lawrence v. Texas, Wesley Phelps offers a new origin story for the landmark 2003 Supreme Court decision that overturned all remaining sodomy laws in the US. Phelps’s work highlights the connections between local advocacy and judicial outcomes. Centering an often-overlooked set of activists and legal struggles in the Lone Star State, Phelps provides an important contribution to our understanding of the long and continuing struggle for LGBTQ rights and offers a hopeful reminder of the importance of grassroots activism in creating change.

~David K. Johnson, University of South Florida, author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government

[An] insightful account...Scholarly yet accessible, this valuable history reveals that Lawrence v. Texas was less of a 'sudden explosion' than 'a raging fire fueled by the burning embers of several decades of citizen activism.'

~Publishers Weekly

An urgent exploration of equality at a moment rife with fresh threats against queer communities.

~Kirkus, starred review

Phelps...links the legal saga to the human struggle that inspired it and in the process sketches out a path for civil rights battles to come.

~Texas Observer

This is an excellent contribution to the historiography and should be read by those interested in modern LGBTQ+ and legal history.

~Pacific Historical Review

An exhaustively researched legal and political analysis.

~Southwestern Historical Quarterly