In 1979, Dallas activist Don Baker filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state sodomy law, which he claimed violated the privacy and equal protection rights of all gay and lesbian Texans. Three years later, the case made headlines when it became the first time a federal court determined that a state law was unconstitutional based on the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. But would the favorable ruling withstand the appeals process?

Queering the Lone Star State is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support is provided by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Willis Library’s Special Collections Division, and the departments of history and media arts at the University of North Texas. You can find more episodes, a selection of our sources, and a teaching guide at our website, https://www.queeringthelonestarstate.com/. The series is produced and edited by Sarah Lyngholm. Clare Robnett and Rodrigo Triana are our research assistants. Morgan Reese designed our website. Our theme music was composed by Nicolas Neidhardt.

Audio of Don Baker in the documentary Finding Our Voice provided courtesy of KERA.

KXAS-NBC 5 audio provided courtesy of the University of North Texas Libraries Special Collections.

Audio of Harryette Ehrhardt and Dick Peeples provided courtesy of The Dallas Way.

Additional music for this episode was composed by Alan Jay Reed.