The mapping of trends, tensions and pitfalls in sexual politics always requires us to take into account their longer cycle, to search underneath the surfaces of easy interpretations, and to be attentive to both structural dimensions and details as well as to explore subtle nuances. These requisites are certainly fulfilled by the case study carried out by Cynthia Rothschild and Susana T. Fried on sexual policies designed and implemented during the years of Obama – a period that has been, to a large extent, couched domestically and internationally as an era of progressive sexual policies, particularly in respect to LGBT rights and same-sex marriage.
While recognizing and analyzing these gains, Rothschild and Fried carefully excavate beneath and around these more visible, at least on the surface, state-led politics in search of contradictions, traps and pitfalls. The analysis also makes an admirable effort to locate the US state’s sexual politics in relation to global structural trends, such as the War on Terror, the 2008 financial crisis, the surge of populisms that goes hand in hand with the so-called return of the religious and the shrinking of civil society. They do not refrain from naming US global hegemony and its implications.
But the greatest merit of the study is to have sustained its pace and direction even when caught by the 2016 US presidential elections that immediately altered the country’s gender and sexuality political arena. We thank and compliment Cynthia and Susana for their caution and sobriety in that regard.
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