About

What this site is

White Knot is a record of United States law on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life. Each piece takes one instrument — an act of Congress, a piece of agency guidance, a Supreme Court decision, a foreign statute — and states what it says, how it was voted, when it took effect, and where it is cited.

The material is divided three ways. Signed Into Law holds six acts of Congress and one piece of agency guidance, including the Equality Act, which passed the House and received no Senate floor vote. Nine Votes runs from Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 to United States v. Skrmetti in 2025. Everywhere Else covers jurisdictions outside the United States, including the seventy-one that still criminalise consensual conduct between adults.

The site does not argue a position on any of it. Where a holding is narrow, the piece says so; where a question was expressly left open, the piece names the question. Citations are given so that a reader can go to the text.

The name is the white knot, the ribbon worn in support of marriage equality from 2008. It is the only ornament here.

The archive lists every piece. Corrections are welcome, particularly on citations.