Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality [Hardcover]

Andrew Sullivan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 1995

An unprecedented work from the brilliant young editor of The New Republic--who is celebrated also as an incisive defender of the equality of homosexuals--Virtually Normal is an impassioned, reasoned, subtle, and uncompromising political and moral treatise that will set the terms of the homosexuality debate for the foreseeable future.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a dizzyingly short period of time, homosexuality has gone from being the love that dare not speak its name to the one that shouts it. Refreshingly, in this wide-ranging discussion of the moral and political status of homosexuals, Sullivan, the gay former whizbang New Republic editor, prefers the middle register. On the one hand, he shuns the liberal tendency to give gays victim status but, on the other, advocates the legalization of gay marriage because he views it as the public recognition of a gay's basic human right to fully love another member of his/her group -- a right that, Sullivan notes, even bigots generally grant those they hate.

From Publishers Weekly

In this lucid polemic, New Republic editor Sullivan, who is gay, defines four major sets of attitudes toward homosexuality. Prohibitionists regard same-sex physical love as a sickness or a crime against nature, requiring cure or punishment. Liberationists, exemplified by historian Michel Foucault and ACT UP, regard homosexuality as a social construct defined variously by individual cultures. Conservatives combine private tolerance of homosexuality with public disapproval or discretion, believing that public acceptance could undermine the family. Liberals enmesh homosexuals in a web of rights and protections, yet their own arguments for free expression, association and contract have been turned against them. Advocating a synthesis of the best arguments of liberals and conservatives, Sullivan calls for an end to all public discrimination against homosexuals, for equal opportunity and inclusion in the military, for unbiased teaching about homosexuality in public schools and for legalized gay and lesbian marriage. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 209 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (August 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679423826
• ISBN-13: 978-0679423829
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rigorous thought, beautiful writing by the pre-gadfly Andrew, January 4, 2002

By 

Steve Sanders "Steve Sanders" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtually Normal (Paperback)

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.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very poignant, August 28, 2003

By 

C. N. White "neilicus107" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtually Normal (Paperback)

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.

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing writing from a true american intellect., August 11, 2002

By 

Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Virtually Normal (Paperback)

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.