Sexual regulation has played a crucial role in American politics over the last several decades. Here are a few snapshots of sexual politics in action: (1) in the summer of 1996, to establish his credentials for reelection, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, a draconian “welfare reform” bill, along with a stringent “immigration reform” bill, legislation that placed sexual regulation at the center of a connected neoliberal agenda;1 (2) the impeachment of President Clinton based on charges of lying under oath about a sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky;2 (3) the remaking of the Republican Party over the last twenty years as an alliance between fiscal conservatives and social conservatives who do not share the same economic interests, yet are nonetheless willing to vote for the same candidate based on a mutual conservatism around gender, sexuality, and race;3 (4) the recent controversies over the role of moral values–values that the New York Times described only in terms of gender and sexuality–in the 2004 election.4
