Fragmented citizens

The landmark Supreme Court decision in June 2015 legalizing the right to same-sex marriage marked a major victory in gay and lesbian rights in the United States. Once subject to a patchwork of laws granting legal status to same-sex couples in some states and not others, gay and lesbian Americans now enjoy full legal status for their marriages wherever they travel or reside in the country. For many, this means that gay and lesbian citizens are one step closer to full equality with the rest of America. However, author Stephen M. Engel contends that there remains much to be done in shaping American institutions to recognize gays and lesbians as full citizens. Tracing the relationship between gay and lesbian individuals and the government from the late 19th century through the early 21st, Engel shows that LGBT Americans are more accurately described as fragmented citizens who still do not have full legal protections against workplace, housing, family, and other kinds of discrimination. There remains a continuing struggle of the state to control their sexuality. Further, he argues that it was the state's ability to identify and control gay and lesbian citizens that allowed it to develop strong administrative capacities to manage all of its citizens in matters of immigration, labor relations, and even national security. The struggle for gay and lesbian rights, then, affected not only the lives of those seeking equality but also the very nature of American governance itself. Fragmented Citizens is a sweeping historical and political account of how our present-day policy debates around citizenship and equality came to be.--Adapted from dust jacket.