Created Equal
Why Gay Rights Matter to America
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Why should Americans who are not gay care about gay rights? In Created Equal, Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff argue that the movement for gay equality is central to the continuing defense of individual liberty in America. Beginning with an examination of the determined assault on gay issues by the religious right, the authors show how this sectarian movement to legislate private religious morality into law undermines the purpose of American constitutional government: the protection of the individual's right to determine how best to live his or her life. The book starts from the premise that gay men and lesbians are, first and foremost, American citizens, and then looks to what rights belong to every individual American citizen, arguing from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Addressing their argument to the great majority of their fellow Americans, Dawidoff and Nava emphasize that what is at stake is not the fate of the gay community, but the future of constitutional principle and the rights of free individuals in American society.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This succinct, cogent manifesto emphasizes that gay men and women are not seeking new or special privileges, but the ordinary rights of individual liberty and equal protection that Americans enjoy under the Constitution. The authors call for an end to discriminatory practices, anti-gay laws, vicious stereotyping, and the near-invisibility of lesbians and gay men. Resisting the fundamentalist religious right's attack on gays, they argue, constitutes a defense of real religious liberty which is predicated on tolerance and personal freedom in a pluralistic society. Moreover, they insist, the struggle for gay rights is important to everyone: ``What gays and lesbians have to teach other Americans is that morality is how you live and how you conduct yourself, not what you happen to be.'' Nava, a lawyer and writer of mystery novels, and Dawidoff, a history professor at the Claremont Graduate School in Southern California, have produced an eloquent, closely argued benchmark document.
