From Outsider Status to Insider and Outsider Again: Interest Convergence Theory and Normalization of LGBT Identity

After the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, which declared the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional,and after the granting of certiorari in Obergell v. Hodges, where the Supreme Court will decide whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to provide a marriage license to same-sex couples, national marriage equality seems like a legal inevitability.However, Windsor and Obergell, along with other state-level advances toward marriage equality, are not equally promising for all members of the lesbian and gay community. Although Windsor and the revolution of cases that have led to Obergell hold significant promise for one privileged subset of gays and lesbians—white, economically privileged, and educated gays and lesbians—they do not necessarily carry the same potential for less privileged subgroups within the gay and lesbian community, namely gays and lesbians of color. In fact, it is possible that inequality among these subgroups within the gay community will increase as gays and lesbians achieve marriage equality and other legal rights. After all, the gay community is not monolithic, and there are various forms of diversity among homosexuals, which have largely been overlooked in the mainstream gay rights movement