The Evidence of "Progress": What Happens After Marriage Equality?

In the years leading up to and following the landmark Obergefell vs. Hodges decision, many public figures declared that marriage equality was The answer for LGBTQ people achieving equal status in broader society. This dominant narrative of progress has veiled the persistence of inequality that LGBQ and T people experience within intersecting forms of oppression outside, beyond, and through marriage equality. By what evidence are people making these assertions of "progress," for the LGBTQ community and to what consequence? In this talk, I will explore these questions across a range of U.S.-based social domains (e.g. legal and medical systems), issues (e.g immigration rights and geographical location), and identities (e.g. disability, race, and class). 

About the Speaker: Stef Shuster is an assistant professor in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. The construction and use of evidence is a key theme in their work, most of which is currently dedicated to a work-in-progress book manuscript, Treating Gender: Transgender Medicine and Uncertain Expertise.