Gays/Justice [Paperback]

Richard Mohr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0231067356 | ISBN-13: 978-0231067355 0

-- The Advocate

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a cogent brief for gay rights, these philosophically informed essays pull no punches. Mohr believes homosexuals should have stronger civil-rights protection to prevent widespread discrimination in employment, housing and public services. He argues that anti-gay discrimination "in good faith" in the army, police forces and schools is actually prejudice in bad faith, built around invidious stereotypes of homosexuals. A gay activist and professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois-Urbana, Mohr rips the insurance industry and the federal government for their handling of the AIDS crisis. He opposes the closing of gay bathhouses as immoral and condemns sodomy laws as an assault on human dignity. In his diagnosis, the call for mandatory AIDS testing is motivated by a need to put down gays and re-assert heterosexual supremacy in our uptight society. Despite considerable overlap in the essays, they are admirably succinct and readable.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

This ambitious examination of the ethical, legal and social situations of American gays deserve the keen attention of the gay reading public. -- The Advocate

Product Details

• Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231067356
• ISBN-13: 978-0231067355
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,390,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A salient assessment of the politics of homosexuality, March 16, 2001

By 

Robert T Bradley (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gays/Justice (Paperback)

Mohr writes an engaging and intellectually stimulating work that examines the ethical and philosophical imperatives behind equality for homosexuals in America. His sound "compare/contrast" methodology of ethical reflection exposes the selective and arbitrary nature of the efforts by certain forces in America to resist gay rights. He lays out compelling suggestions for the direction that gay activism must move to continue to be relevent and empowered in modern America. He neither caters to the powerful gay left paradigm nor walks the safe path of gradualism. His ideas, for the most part, make sense in a way that the reader will find him/herself exclaiming at various points, "Of course! That is exactly what needs to happen." His work suffers in two areas. He is a member of the academic elite in the purest sense of the word. His expressed disdain for the very students he is responsible to teach leaves a bad taste in this reviewer's mouth, at least. More critical to the substance of his work is the manner in which he allows his personal religious views to affect his arguments. His own distaste for organized religion leads him to conclude that religious gays should step aside and not participate in the struggle for gay rights, their best intentions not withstanding. This is an incredibly weak argument and stands out drastically when compared to the rest of his argument which is sound and balanced. He argues that gay Christian activism only invites the Religious Right into the debate in an arena where they have the upper hand. He could not be more wrong, but his lack of understanding of the religious issues leaves him unable to see the incredible importance of maintaining a strong religious argument that challenges the religious rhetoric of the Right using shared values and language. Overall, however, I have yet to read a more powerful look into the future of a successful gay rights movement.