Abstract
The Supreme Court's 1996 ruling in Romer v. Evans is widely seen as a significant extension of civil rights to gays and lesbians. We offer a reading of Romer v. Evans (1996) that eschews traditional and formalistic legal analysis in favor of more critical approaches to understanding the role of law in lived experience and communal life. In particular, we see Romer as an opportunity to engage in a “critical rhetoric,” and specifically a “critique of freedom.”