Leigh Ann Wheeler

Leigh Ann Wheeler's scholarly work revolves around one key problem—understanding the gendered and changing nature of sexual culture in the 20th Century United States. Her most recent book, "How Sex Became a Civil Liberty," shows how the American Civil Liberties Union profoundly changed the ways Americans think about, legislate and adjudicate sexuality. The ACLU did so by developing and promoting new constitutional rights, including the consumer's right to speech and privacy. Sexual issues considered in the book include: birth control, nudism, obscenity & pornography, abortion, sterilization, gay rights, rape and sexual harassment.