Law professor’s book aims to aid gays and lesbians

Laws regarding gay and lesbian issues are often pegged as controversial, unclear and weak. … Laws regarding gay and lesbian issues are often pegged as controversial, unclear and weak.

But now a young Pitt professor has researched a means for protecting gays outside of the usual channels.

In his new book, “Everyday Law for Gays and Lesbians (and Those Who Care About Them),” Anthony C. Infanti addresses means to defend the rights of those in the gay and lesbian communities, often looking to extralegal methods of resolution.

“Merely changing the law will not necessarily lead to a change in the way that straight people think about or interact with us. As a result, we should resist the natural temptation to immediately turn to the law for vindication when we feel wronged,” Infanti said in an e-mail interview.

Infanti’s book will be available in February by Paradigm Publishers.

In an effort to further explain issues such as marriage and its alternatives, bias crimes, the military, education, employment, housing, medical and tax planning and parenting, Infanti uses his publication to provide concrete information to readers.

He also believes, however, that incorporating personal accounts with official policy helps his book to break free from the rigidity of legal jargon and supply relatable, comprehensible information.

“I chose to include personal narratives in an attempt to make the legal discussions more relevant and accessible to the reader.”

As a law professor and a member of the gay community, Infanti seeks to serve as an educator about gay and lesbian legal rights and possible solutions to problems both legal and non-legal.

Infanti saw writing the book as an opportunity to bring attention to what he sees as the inequalities and shortcomings within the legal system today.

“My basic goal is to raise awareness of these legal obstacles and, hopefully, to make it a bit easier for lesbians and gay men to navigate or, at the very least, to identify and understand them,” Infanti said.

Shortly after graduating from law school, Infanti published his first research focused on gay and lesbian rights.

He currently teaches at Pitt’s School Of Law, and his specialty is tax law regarding sexual orientation discrimination within our tax system.

“As a gay man, I am directly interested in the topics that I cover in the book. As a lawyer and an academic, I am also interested in educating others about their legal rights and about the possible legal and non-legal remedies for the problems that they face,” Infanti said.

Infanti said that the law either ignores the needs of those in the gay community or does more to harm than to help them, and his book provides information on the basics of navigating these laws as a homosexual.

All information in Infanti’s book is current as of September 2007, when it was sent to press.

Notices from an electronic legal database allowed Infanti to remain up-to-date on the fluctuating laws pertaining to gays and lesbians.

His book addresses legal recognitions of same-sex relationships, as well as insurance matters.

Washington state adopted a domestic partner regime in April 2007, which has been effective since July 2007.

New Hampshire’s addition of a civil union regime in June 2007 was first effective January 1, 2008. Infanti addresses both cases in his book.

He also tells of a 2007 controversy within the UPS Company regarding the extension of health insurance to employees joined by a civil union in New Jersey.

Despite successes in legal actions, certain states still await validation.

Oregon established a domestic partner regime, which is not effective yet. Those in opposition currently await a referendum on the November ballot to allow voters to veto, Infanti said.

He stresses the importance of non-legal approaches to incite change if the situation will result more positively if legal means are not used.

“We must therefore attempt to strike an appropriate balance between efforts to effect legal change and efforts to effect social change,” Infanti said.

“We must recognize that the law has been, and continues to be, no great friend of ours,” he said, “and that even if it were, the law simply cannot grant us the unqualified acceptance that we seek from society.”