Sexual Civil Rights
From Miscegenation laws to Gay
Marriage
Gay Marriage Cases Before SCOTUS
Perry v. Schwarzenegger
Windsor v. United States
• Pace v. Alabama, 1883:
SCOTUS confirms that antimiscegenation laws are
Constitutional, and that they
do not constitute
discrimination against any
race.
Richard and Mildred
Loving
• McLaughlin v. Florida, 1964:
overturns Pace; sets the
stage for Loving
Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution (July
1868)
• Citizenship Clause:No state can abridge the
rights of citizenship
• Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses:
states may not restrain the liberty of citizens
unequally, and must provide equal access to
the law to all citizens.
Myth of the “tragic mullatto”
Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)
Pauli Murray,
1910-1985
Psupreme Court of California: Perez v. Sharp
Jeanne Crain and Ethel Waters in Pinky (Elia Kazan,
1949)
Susan Kohner and Juanita Moore in Imitation of LIfe
(Douglas Sirk, 1959)
Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and
Katherine Houghton in Guess Who’s Coming to
Dinner? (Stanley Kramer, 1967