Katherine Madsen Franke (b.1958) is an American legal scholar specializing in gender and sexuality law. She serves as the Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Columbia Law School and has pioneered research on feminist theory, LGBTQ rights, and civil liberties.
Born in Denver, Colorado, Katherine M. Franke received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1981. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1986, then went on to earn an LL.M. from Yale Law School in 1993 and an S.J.D. from Yale in 1999. Franke taught at the University of Arizona and Fordham University School of Law before joining the Columbia Law faculty.
Franke’s influential work includes the critically acclaimed book Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality (2015,) where she examines the implications of marriage equality for the broader struggle for LGBTQ rights. She argues that while marriage equality was a significant milestone, it also imposed traditional marital norms on queer relationships, potentially stifling more radical reforms in family law.
In addition to Wedlocked, Franke has published numerous scholarly articles and essays in leading law reviews and journals. Her 2011 article, Dignifying Rights: A Critique of Liberal Rights, is widely cited for its critical examination of how legal rights are constructed and their impact on marginalized communities. In her book Repair: Redeeming the Promise of Abolition (2019,) she explores the concept of reparations for African Americans, linking the historical injustices of slavery to contemporary racial inequalities and advocating for meaningful, systemic change.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Katherine Franke
As perfume is to the flower, so is kindness to speech.
—Katherine Franke
Topics: Kindness
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