Shannon Gilreath

Shannon Gilreath

Professor of Law
Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Shannon Gilreath is professor of law (School of Law) and professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (with Tenure, Wake Forest College). He specializes in gay rights issues and the law of sexuality (including constitutional and criminal issues) and thinks and writes as a gay liberationist scholar. He is a widely recognized authority on US constitutional law, with Jeffry Rosen of the American Constitution Center referring to him as "one of the foremost experts on the First Amendment today." Professor Gilreath's casebook Sexual Identity Law in Context (West) was only the second casebook published that treated gay rights law as a discrete area of … Read more »

Shannon Gilreath is professor of law (School of Law) and professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (with Tenure, Wake Forest College). He specializes in gay rights issues and the law of sexuality (including constitutional and criminal issues) and thinks and writes as a gay liberationist scholar. He is a widely recognized authority on US constitutional law, with Jeffry Rosen of the American Constitution Center referring to him as "one of the foremost experts on the First Amendment today." Professor Gilreath's casebook Sexual Identity Law in Context (West) was only the second casebook published that treated gay rights law as a discrete area of study, and is considered foundational to the now well-established field of law and sexuality studies.

Gilreath remains actively engaged with law reform—consulting on cases, appearing as amicus in appellate cases, and writing or providing guidance on drafting anti-discrimination laws in jurisdictions across the country and at the federal level, including the statute to repeal the armed services Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. His theory of anti-equality speech has been reflected in two US circuit court decisions on anti-gay speech in public schools. He pioneered an equality law argument for the decriminalization of HIV-positive status that has been deployed successfully by advocates in a number of states. He has written multiple books, including Realizing Gay Liberation (Cambridge U. Press) and, most recently, On Being American: The Jurisprudence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (ABA Press).

Education

  • JD, Wake Forest University School of Law, 2002
  • BA, summa cum laude, Lenoir–Rhyne University, 1986

Courses

Publications

Books

  • On Being American: The Jurisprudence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (American Bar Association Press 2024) (with Suzanne Reynolds).
  • Sexual Orientation and Identity: Political and Legal Analysis (2016).
  • Sexual Identity Law in Context (2nd ed.) (Thomson-West (American Casebook Series) 2011).
  • The End of Straight Supremacy: Realizing Gay Liberation (Cambridge University Press 2011).
  • Sexual Politics: The Gay Person in America Today (University of Akron Press 2006).

Book Chapters

  • Pornography/Death: The Problem of Gay Pornography in a Straight Supremacist System, in Nicholas Bamforth, Sexual Orientation and Rights (2015).

Articles

Other

Presentations

  • "Who Am I?: Identity in Teaching and Evaluation"
    Teaching and Learning Center, Wake Forest University, February 22, 2010

Media

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Shannon Gilreath
Contact Information

Expertise
  • Civil Rights/Anti-Discrimination Laws
  • Information & Privacy
  • Law & Society
  • Public Interest Law & Policy
  • Religious Freedom
  • Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law
  • Substantive Due Process
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