This text explores a wide range of US law and legal theory and its bearing on lesbian existence, tackling controversial legal questions, including: the treatment of lesbian criminal defendants; lesbianism and violence; the courts' tendency to resort to stereotypes, such as ""the good lesbian"" and ""the bad lesbian""; the numerous debates surrounding same-sex marriage; and the outcome of child custody cases involving lesbians. The author also considers and repudiates the recent habit of legal theorists to address lesbians only within the narrow context of ""alternative"" family.;Weaving together concepts taken from traditional legal theory, postmodernism and queer theory, as well as her own experience in the courtroom and classroom, Robson takes stock of the complexities of lesbian identity and the often detrimental ways in which legal scholarship approaches lesbianism.
