SCOTUS Affirms LGBTQ+ Discrimination, and Disrupting Dignity, the Power Issues

Today, the Supreme Court , in a unanamous decision, ruled that Philadelphia may not reject a Catholic organization that refused to work with same-sex couples from screening potential foster parents. We will discuss that ruling with our guests, Stephen M. Engel and Timothy S. Lyle.  We will also be talking about their new book DISRUPTING DIGNITY: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ Lives (NYU Press, June 2021). In the book, they explore how dignity is deployed by different authorities in different ways—and often brandished to marginalize, restrain, and shame members of LGBTQ+ communities.

DISRUPTING DIGNITY explores the concept of Respect versus Respectability, with attention to how the chase for dignity has severed LGBTQ+ communities from the potential of liberated worldmaking.  

Stephen is Professor of Politics and an Affiliated Scholar of the American Bar Foundation. He teaches courses in US constitutional law, American Political Development, and LGBTQ+ politics. He is the author of multiple books including Fragmented Citizens: The Changing Landscape of Gay and Lesbian Lives and American Politicians Confront the Courts: Opposition Politics and Changing Responses to Judicial Power.  Timothy (they/them) is an Assistant Professor of English. They specialize in contemporary African American literature and culture, focusing on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and disability. They have published work on Tyler Perry in Callaloo and Continuum, on Janet Mock in the College Language Association Journal, Callaloo, and MELUS, and on HIV/AIDS narratives in African American Review and The Journal of West Indian Literature.

With co-host Brody Levesque.