NORTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW Volume 90 | Number 4 Article 2 5-1-2012 The Geography of Sexuality Yishai Blank Issi Rosen-Zvi Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Yishai Blank & Issi Rosen-Zvi, The Geography of Sexuality, 90 N.C. L. Rev. 955 (2012). Available at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol90/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Law Review by an authorized administrator of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE GEOGRAPHY OF SEXUALITY* YISHAI BLANK & ISSI ROSEN-ZVI** Who regulates sexuality in America? Given the high salience of federal laws and policies such as the Defense of MarriageAct ("DOMA"), the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and states' legal activism regardingsame-sex marriage, it would seem that sexuality is mostly a federal and state matter, and that cities play a secondary, if not insignificantrole. This Article argues that in fact the opposite is true: the regulation of sexuality has been decentralized, with cities being the main locus where the most important issues affecting the lives of gays and lesbians are decided. This "localization of sexuality" happened as a result of a lack of comprehensive federal protection of gays and lesbians, the limited protection given to them by states, and the powers which cities regularly possess. These powers, which include zoning, business licensing, districting, education, and other police powers, are used by cities in ways that either benefit or harm sexual minorities.