R.K. Maril / A Queer Guide to Saving Democracy

City Lights and Cambridge University Press celebrate the publication of A Queer Guide to Saving Democracy By R.K. Maril published by Cambridge University Press Check out the Queer Guide to Saving Democracy podcast Since the early 2000s, American courts and legislatures have delivered a series of generation-defining LGBTQ legal victories. Today, this progress and the very institutions that made it possible are under attack. A Queer Guide to Saving American Democracy is an introduction to this democratic crisis, speaking directly to the queer and transgender people navigating the intensifying political and cultural fault lines. It argues that the current denigration of queer and transgender lives in the US is a symptom of the broader degradation of American democracy, representing the newest threat of American fascism. By centering queer and trans identity in the larger history of authoritarianism, the book highlights the strategic villainization of nonconforming groups as a tool to consolidate power and political control. In response, this book empowers readers to adopt pro-democracy frameworks rooted in the defiant authenticity and stubborn joy of queer existence, forging pathways committed to transformative social change. It is not an easy moment to be LGBTQ in America. LGBTQ people are facing the biggest threat to our survival in a generation. Queer and trans people have fought for our right to live and love openly for decades. But today even more is at risk. Our queer future depends on our democratic future. Law Professor and activist Robin Maril sits down with the LGBTQ voices leading the resistance to talk about democracy, what's at stake, and how we save it all. Robin Knauer Maril is a writer and professor based in Portland, Oregon. She teaches Constitutional Law and Administrative Law at Willamette University. Her work engages questions of democratic integrity and the growing threat of fascism and authoritarian regimes within America. Before teaching, Robin worked in the LGBTQ civil rights movement for nearly a decade. As Associate Legal Director at the Human Rights Campaign, she worked directly with Congress and the Executive Branch on federal programs and policies impacting the LGBTQ community. She also focused extensively on issues impacting the federal judiciary and federal judicial nominations including the U.S. Supreme Court. Robin began her legal career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She and her wife have two sons, two dogs, and an unknown number of snails. She is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Temple University Beasley School of Law. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation