Customer Reviews

Virtually Normal

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2 star:		(1)
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Andrew Sullivan believes that acceptance into the American mainstream is critical if gays and lesbians are to overcome the lingering legal and personal discrimination they face. The bulk of Sullivan's relatively brief book is an analysis of current gay politics from four ideological perspectives: "prohibitionists," the Protestant fundamentalists and conservative Catholics whose teachings and Biblical literalism Sullivan subjects to rigorous logical and scholarly critique; "liberationists," radicals whose dense theory and belligerent tactics have made them, Sullivan believes, increasingly marginal; "conservatives," who do not want to oppress gays but who find gay politics and sexuality troublesome; and "liberals," who want to protect gays through traditional civil rights laws that bar discrimination by businesses, landlords, and schools. Staking out his own position as a classical liberal, Sullivan then argues that traditional anti-discrimination laws, which seek to remedy one infringement of liberty by imposing another, engender resentment and aggravate social division. His own prescription is to attack the governmental discrimination that persists in refusing gays the rights and responsibilities of marriage and military service. Such public equality, he believes, would do more than laws and court decisions to secure the ultimate goal of private equality.

I've previously used this book as one text in an undergraduate political science course for the masterful, economical, and honest way it delineates and critiques four major ways of thinking about gay and lesbian freedom.

This book displays the high-octane intelligence, elegant logic and wordcraft, and simple, noble, guileless passion for which Sullivan was better known before he became a website-hawking, on-the-fly-opining media gadfly. You should ignore the rabid Sullivan bashers who complain that he doesn't "get it" as a self-respecting gay man, and who wail about his sexual hypocrisy, his cozying up to Republicans, and the general fact that he gets lots more attention than they do. In their ad hominem distaste, they usually decline to grapple (or are incapable of doing so) with Sullivan's serious thinking, or to acknowledge that, in this book at least, he provides rigorous arguments, not just controversial pronouncements. Take this book on its own terms and forget about Sullivan's more recent baggage. For those in search of lively writing and whose minds are open to sharp, unconventional thinking (whether you expect to come away agreeing or not), it's one of the essential works on the gay/lesbian politics bookshelf.

Homosexuality has been been getting a lot of publicity in the last few years - and even more so in recent weeks, with the election of a gay bishop to the Episcopal church, and the subsequent discussion of gay marriage. With so much talk nowadays, it is important to be informed.

This book, better than any other, clearly and thoroughly outlines the four main arguments for and against homosexuality, and critiques their strengths and weaknesses in a prose style that is both highly personal and incredibly reasoned and intelligent. The Prohibitionists are the one school that is the most decidedly anti-homosexual - seeking to either punish or "cure" gays and lesibans. The Liberationists seek freedom from social labels and conventions, but, like the Prohibitionists, do not accept the concept of homosexuality as a valid state of being - there are no real homosexuals, only homosexual acts. Sullivan sees them as well meaning, but misguided. The Conservatives believe that homosexuals are entitled to a certain amount of privacy and respect, but homosexuality is still a sin. Homosexuals do exist... but they can't help it. They still disapprove of homosexuality, just not necessarily homosexuals. The Liberals also mean well, and struggle for the rights of homosexuals, but unfortunately blanket them in their larger agenda of "helping the little people", so to speak - well meaning, but sometimes a bit patronizing.

Sullivan does more than criticize, however. He also finds merit in these viewpoints. However, his major argument is that these views either need to be overcome or modified if homosexuals are ever going to have an equally accepted place in society. He also offers ways to overcome these different biases. In the place of these four prevailing positions, he argues for a politics that guarantees the rights and equality of homosexuals - without imposing tolerance.

This is an incredibly articulate and brilliantly written book for anyone wishing to know the real truth about a lot of the political and social ramifications concerning homosexuality today, written by a very intelligent man. It is a book for anyone who wishes to sound intelligent and well-informed when discussing this often heated and increasingly important issue.

Andrew Sullivan has written a gem with "Virtually Normal." In these beautifully written pages, we find an author exploring- his goal being to understand first, question next- four explanations for and proposed methods of dealing with homosexuality. In the end, he finds all four lacking.

The doctrines given treatment are: prohibitionism- being gay is a choice of deviance and as such should be treated as a sin, constructionism- gay is merely a social construction and there would be no 'homosexual problem' if we deconstruct sexuality, Conservatism- we should let people be gay but homosexuality should NEVER be encouraged socially. Finally we get to Liberalism. Perhaps Sullivan finds the most trouble here. The liberal doctrine states that as a persecuted group, gays should be tolerated to the point that if social coercion becomes necessary (through 'hate crime' legislation and the like), all the better. Through 'education' (resembling indoctrination) equality can be forced. Save for prohibitionism, I would agree that liberalism is the most dangerous of all.

Although it will be obvious that Sullivan has a special distaste for liberalism, he finds serious flaws in each of the four doctrines for good reason. His conclusion breaks sharply with all of them,resembling more of a classical liberal (J.S. Mill) approach. Tolerance should be encouraged, never forced. Government discrimination is the evil, private discrimination will die in the free market because it is always inefficient. Sullivan then devotes time to gay marriange and military service, asserting- very correctly- that untill homosexuals can serve their country openly and marry legally, they will always be on unequal footing. If the potential reader has never heard Sullivan speak on these issues, she should not delay.

His afterword is a much needed response to seemingly universal misunderstanding on his book. As he criticizes the four dominant views, he gets criticized by them in turn. Even the 'conservatives,' who as ironic as it is, were the group that his defenders were overwhelmingly from, misunderstood his arguments against liberalism as an affirmation of conservativism. Sullivan, if I had to guess, is a republican with a small 'r', i.e. he believes in a somewhat self governing republic. Whatever your views, this book will challenge, educate, and motivate you.

I am not a fan of Andrew Sullivan nor am I a fan of Republicans or Democrats. I am a European-style "right-winger" whose politics share virtually nothing with anything even remotely mainstream in America. I am the exact person who most of the readers of such books would expect to despise this one. Except that it concerns me politically and as an individual, as I am bisexual. I have never understood the Right's opposition to homosexuality, except the Protestant, Jewish and Islamic Religious Right, of course. The great idea in this book is the idea of the conservativizing of gay couples and gay culture through State-sanctioned marriage. The reason many still despise us is due to the intensely anti-social behavior exhibited worldwide by many of those in the gay community. Watch any gay pride parade in any city and you will see behavior that is repulsive to any person of any moral integrity or respect for the concept of community. This is not a gay/straight issue. It is a human issue. Part of the reason gays tend towards these abhorent public expressions of what should be private behavior is because they have no sense of their legitimacy as citizens and therefore no sense of responsibility toward the community outside of the various gay ghettos. State-sanctioned marriage would gradually end this as it would provide structure to chaos and would end up dramatically decreasing precisely those behaviors that the anti-gay forces object to. It is clearly a win-win situation for all. It would allow us to be who we are comfortably while conforming to the social norms of the majority culture. This is what the anti-gay forces object to, and rightly so: the destabilization of the majority culture. They are misinformed and ignorant but their goal is one that should be desired by all members of the community and gays should recognize that. State-sanctioned gay marriage would be beneficial to the entire community. Gays will be more likely to lose their desire for anti-social behavior and straights will be more likely to become less hostile toward gays or at the very least keep their prejudices at home.

Andrew Sullivan believes that acceptance into the American mainstream is critical if gays and lesbians are to overcome the lingering legal and personal discrimination they face. The bulk of Sullivan's relatively brief book is an analysis of current gay politics from four ideological perspectives: "prohibitionists," the Protestant fundamentalists and conservative Catholics whose teachings and Biblical literalism Sullivan subjects to withering logical and scholarly critique; "liberationists," radicals whose dense theory and belligerent tactics have made them, Sullivan believes, increasingly marginal; "conservatives," who do not want to oppress gays but who find gay politics and sexuality troublesome; and "liberals," who want to protect gays through traditional civil rights laws that bar discrimination by businesses, landlords, and schools. Staking out his own position as a classical liberal, Sullivan then argues that traditional anti-discrimination laws, which seek to remedy one infringement of liberty by imposing another, engender resentment and aggravate social division. His own prescription is to attack the governmental discrimination that persists in refusing gays the rights and responsibilities of marriage and military service. Such public equality, he believes, would do more than laws and court decisions to secure the ultimate goal of private equality.

I've previously used this book as one text in an undergraduate political science course for the masterful, economical, and honest way it delineates and critiques four major ways of thinking about gay and lesbian freedom.

This book displays the high-octane intelligence, elegant logic and wordcraft, and simple, noble, guileless passion for which Sullivan was better known before he became a website-hawking, on-the-fly-opining media gadfly. You should ignore the rabid Sullivan bashers who complain that he doesn't "get it" as a self-respecting gay man, and who wail about his sexual hypocrisy, his cozying up to Republicans, and the general fact that he gets lots more attention than they do. In their ad hominem distaste, they usually decline to grapple (or are incapable of doing so) with Sullivan's serious thinking, or to acknowledge that, in this book at least, he provides rigorous arguments, not just controversial pronouncements. Take this book on its own terms and forget about Sullivan's more recent baggage. For those in search of lively writing and whose minds are open to sharp, unconventional thinking (whether you expect to come away agreeing or not), it's one of the essential works on the gay/lesbian politics bookshelf.

Andrew Sullivan has become one of my favorite writers on the subject of homosexuality. In "Virtually Normal" he covers so many bases on why people have the attitude they do regarding homosexuality. Some chapters I had to re-read many times just because the depth he used in explaining things, some were so striking that i thought to myself, "That's what i have been thinking all along but never knew how to say it!" I would recommedn this book to anyone, whether homosexual or heterosexual, who is trying to understand a gay friend or a family member or simply try to move beyond, "I am gay, what do i do next?" Great job Andrew....your writings have a brought a great deal of hope to me and I am sure many others!

Author Andrew Sullivan's book is a breath of fresh air in the field of gay studies. Mr. Sullivan present different viewpoints on the subject of homosexuality (Prohibitionist, Liberationist, Conservative and Liberal) To present any argument you must understand the position of your opponent and I welcome the chance here ( in this book) to do that.
Not everyone in the gay studies filed has embraced the book and some have spoken very publicly against it, which is funny to me since everyone wants freedom of speech and equal rights, but how quickly we are to condemn those whose viewpoints do not reflect our own. In closing Mr. Sullivan makes some valid arguments for the legalization of same-sex marriage, which he claims would not undermine heterosexual marriage, but may actually strengthen it. Finally someone who commands that we think about ouselves and our culture, who does not give the reader a sugary sweet view of what the world could, should be like.

I honestly believe this book is worth reading. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about homosexuality, who they are, what they are all about aswell. Before I read this book I was totally, perse..."Homophobic". However, this book has caused me to change my view points towards homosexuals. Its a must to those who are in-need of getting a "realistic slap in the face."

"thou shall not judge", said God. So why not listen, and accept our brother/sisters for who they are and not on behalf of their sexual orientation. We all have virtues and failures in our life. And this "awakening" is defenitely a virute in mine (and can be yours aswell).

A wonderfully detailed examination of the social and cultural issues relating the development of gay rights. I think anyone who wants to get a better sense of the communities involved on both sides of the fight for gay rights should read this. A must for any basal reading list of Gay Studies 101.

Lucid and analytical, well written, a pleasure to read.