UIC
Professor痴 Work Gets a Supreme Compliment
Chicago
Tribune , July 17, 2003
435 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611
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Email: ctc-tribletter@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0307170273jul17,1,694162.story
At Random On Academia
By Julia Keller, Tribune cultural critic
John D脱milio recently found himself enjoying an unusual
feeling蓉nusual, that is, for a history professor. It痴 a familiar
feeling, no doubt, for captains of industry or influential politicians, but
not for an academic.
The feeling: Clout.
And not just the kind of clout that garners a good restaurant table or
last-minute Cubs tickets. This power was at once less tangible, but more
lasting and profound.
The book D脱milio co-wrote with Estelle B. Freedman, 的ntimate Matters:
A History of Sexuality in America? (University of Chicago Press, 446 pages,
17ドル), was cited by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy when, writing for a
majority of court on July 26, he and his colleagues struck down a Texas law
criminalizing sodomy.
The decision was widely hailed as a victory for gay rights預nd it derived
in part, according to Kennedy痴 written comments, from the information he
gleaned from D脱milio痴 book, which traces the history of American
perspectives on sexual relationships from the nation痴 founding through the
present day. The justice mentioned 的ntimate Matters? specifically in the
court痴 decision.
撤eople are very excited for me,? said D脱milio, a professor of
history and of gender and women痴 studies at the University of Illinois at
Chicago. 的t痴 been very gratifying to hear from colleagues, but I知
also enjoying the media recognition.?
Making a difference
D脱milio, who has taught at UIC since 1999, said he has been interviewed
by reporters from, among others, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor and
ABC痴 哲ightline.?
典he history that many of us have been writing these past 20 years
actually penetrated how the court thinks,? he added. 典hose of us who
spend years and years working in archives謡ell, we love what we do. But you
never know if it makes a difference.?
Now, D脱milio said, he knows. 典his was the big time.?
In his remarks, Kennedy wrote that 的ntimate Matters? had revealed to
him and his colleagues that 鍍he concept of the homosexual as a distinct
category of person did not emerge until the late 19th Century. . . . Thus
early American sodomy laws were not directed at homosexuals as such but
instead sought to prohibit nonprocreative sexual activity more generally. . .
. It does tend to show that this particular form of conduct was not thought of
as a particular category [different] from like conduct between heterosexual
persons.?
D脱milio痴 book recounts that sodomy laws were devised to prohibit
behavior by either same-sex partners or partners of opposite sexes, not to
punish a certain kind of person. Kennedy痴 point, D脱milio said, is that
the current use of sodomy laws葉he few that remain擁s to punish a group,
not a behavior. And punishing a group, even if its behavior is repugnant to
some, presumably is not OK in America.
的t痴 not as if we池e saying there haven稚 been sodomy statutes,?
D脱milio said. 典here have been. But sodomy statutes were part of a whole
set of laws that prohibited a lot of sex that wasn稚 procreative. Most of
those prohibitions have been discarded. Why is this one still around?
典he other thing he [Kennedy] seemed to get is that, 300 years ago, if
you punished someone for sodomy, you were punishing someone who did this
thing. Now, you池e punishing someone for who they are.?
An argument from history
D脱milio said he had joined other historians in submitting books for the
court痴 review as the case was being considered. But he had no idea that
的ntimate Matters? would be cited in the decision.
添ou never know if an argument from history will influence the court,?
he said. 的t was so amazing to be sitting at my computer terminal as the
decision was coming and scrolling down on the page [reading Kennedy痴 words]
and realizing, 前h, my God, he痴 made a decision from history!? It was
so rewarding.?
D脱milio, whose undergraduate and graduate history degrees were earned at
Columbia University, has written extensively about the history of gender and
sexuality in the United States in books such as 典he World Turned: Essays on
Gay History, Politics and Culture? (Duke University Press, 328 pages,
18ドル.95) and 鉄exual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual
Minority in the United States 1940-1970? (University of Chicago Press, 258
pages, 14ドル). A reviewer for the Boston Globe termed the latter book 殿
milestone in the history of the American gay movement.?
As director of UIC痴 gender and women痴 studies program, he has seen
the growth of such programs at colleges nationwide, D脱milio reported.
的t痴 become very well integrated in the life of the university. Gender
studies is starting to become as normal in the university as English or
philosophy or anthropology. It痴 way beyond just a fashion or a radical
impulse,? he said. 鉄tudents who take these courses have their eyes opened
to different ways of looking at things.?
Critics have charged that programs such as women痴 studies, gender
studies and African-American studies are more ideological than scholarly,
aimed at promoting a political agenda rather than disseminating knowledge.
D脱milio stoutly rejects the charge.
鄭s a citizen, I have opinions, as we all do. But as a scholar, I知
really trying to understand the world as best I can.? That requires serious
research into the historical foundations of present laws and attitudes,
D脱milio said. 的n all sorts of spheres, a deeper understanding of history
has a lot to tell us about contemporary challenges.?
Moreover, the book that helped the Supreme Court make its decision was
hardly a polemic, D脱milio said. 展e didn稚 write an advocacy book. We
didn稚 write a book that started out from the assumption that sex is bad,
that gay people are immoral. We started from the assumption of, 銑et痴
look at what this history has to tell us.?
鄭nd it helped the Supreme Court justices to look at sodomy statutes in a
different way.?
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