Although the gay and lesbian movements have become increasingly mobilized to raise issues of discrimination and violence against sexual minorities, there are strong currents operating to prevent such protection. There is evidence that violence motivated by homophobia and heterosexism is the most frequent, visible, violent, and culturally legitimated form of hate crime in the United States (Jenness and Brood, 1997). Hate-motivated violence against gays and lesbians or those presumed to be gays and lesbians is one of the fastest growing forms of hate crime in the United States. Such violence crosses racial, ethnic, religious, national, and age boundaries. A review of sodomy laws and the homosexual panic defense shows the discriminatory nature of the law. Significant in the history of the criminal justice system and the discipline of criminal justice is the predominantly macho, quasi-militaristic nature of the field. The military policy regarding gays and lesbians is an example of institutional discrimination that fosters antipathy toward gays and lesbians in larger society. There is a need for legal theory to create a body of legal scholarship that is responsive to gay and lesbian life and identity, to make the law accountable for its actual impact on the lives and fortunes of sexual minorities, and to join with Feminism and Critical Race Theory in aiming for liberation from subordination under law. 34 references