The Long Arc of Justice: Lesbian and Gay Marriage, Rights, and Equality

Review
"This eloquent articulation of what gays deserve from American society." -- Richard Labonte, gsyndicate.com

Book Description
Engaging the whole spectrum of public-policy issues affecting gays and lesbians from a humanistic and philosophical approach, Richard Mohr assesses the logic and ethics of gay rights. Focusing on ideas and values, Mohr's case for legal and social acceptance applies widely held ethical principles to same-sex marriage, AIDS, and gays in the military. By drawing on cultural-, legal-, and ethical-based arguments, he reveals the ways in which the struggle for gay rights and acceptance relates to mainstream American society, history, and political life.

About the Author
Richard D. Mohr is professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois-Urbana. He is the author of The Platonic Cosmology; Gays/Justice: A Study of Ethics, Society, and Law; Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies; A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights; and Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick. A public intellectual, he has also written for The Nation, The Advocate, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Boston Globe, and the Chicago Tribune.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Mohr on morality:"Sometimes 'morality' just means the values generally held by members of a society, its mores, norms, and customs. On this understanding, gays are probably not moral: lots of people hate them, and social customs are designed to register widespread disapproval of gays. The problem here is that this sense of morality is merely a descriptive one. On this understanding, every society has a morality, even Nazi society." Mohr on marriage:"'Gay marriage.' It used to sound to the American ear not just like an oxymoron (say 'a cruel kindness' or 'an honest thief'), but a flat-out self-contradiction (say, 'a round square' or a 'female bachelor'), something that is a logical impossibility, a phrase that was false by the very meaning of its terms, quite independently of any reference to facts. But with all the talk of 'gay marriage' generated by the Right, the phrase now sounds about as unshocking as the phrase 'gay couples.'" Mohr on the future of gay rights:"The trajectory of gays in America, after legal justice, will probably be more like that of Jews after the Civil Rights era than that of blacks. Jews were both a major constituency and major force in getting the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. At the time, it was thought that Jews would be major beneficiaries of its provision, but in fact there are almost no Civil Rights Act cases with Jewish plaintiffs. Blatant discrimination against Jews trailed off just as legal protections against such discrimination were coming into play."


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Engaging the whole spectrum of public-policy issues affecting gays and lesbians from a humanistic and philosophical approach, Richard Mohr uses the tools of his trade to assess the logic and ethics of gay rights. Focusing on ideas and values, Mohr's nuanced case for legal and social acceptance applies widely held ethical principles to various issues, including same-sea marriage, AIDS, and gays in the military. By drawing on cultural-, legal-, and ethical-based arguments, Mohr moves away from tired political rhetoric and reveals the important ways in which the struggle for gay rights and acceptance relates to mainstream American society, history, and political life.


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