2. Risher v. Risher

In 1974, Mary Jo Risher, a mother of two boys who lived with her partner Ann Foreman in Garland, received notice that her ex-husband was challenging her custody rights. Her ex-husband argued that Mary Jo was a serial violator of the state sodomy law and therefore incapable of providing an acceptable home environment for children. Would this be enough for a court to revoke Mary Jo’s custody rights? Could the state sodomy law really justify this kind of blatant discrimination? 

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 Mary Jo Risher on the Studs Terkel Radio Hour is from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, courtesy of the Chicago History Museum and WFMT.

Audio of Betty Friedan is from the National Organization for Women Collection at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.

Audio of Mary Jo Risher's press conference following the appellate decision not to hear her case provided courtesy of the University of North Texas Libraries Special Collections.

Additional music for this episode was composed by Ernst August Quelle and Jon Hansson.