Virtually Normal

by Andrew Sullivan

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307789273
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/04/2011
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Andrew Sullivan was editor of The New Republic from 1991 to 1996.  He holds a B. A. in modern history and modern languages from Oxford University and a Ph. D. in political science from Harvard University.  He lives in Washington, D. C.

Editorial Reviews

Former New Republic editor Sullivan calls for an end to all forms of discrimination against homosexuals. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

From the first page, one gets the impression that something important is happening here: this is a level-headed, clearly argued discussion of gay rights, the homosexual, and society. The author, editor of The New Republic, describes the major arguments in the continuing debate between the gay rights and special rights camps. He delineates the philosophical, religious, and social foundations and implications of each position, from the misplaced moral outrage of the far right to the victim politics of the left, and forecasts their respective political futures in the light of their logical conclusions and new political realities. Sullivan finds all these arguments lacking any hope of clear victory, and he glumly foresees a continuing political muddle unless an alternative is found. His own solution, a new politics of civility, is at once old-fashioned and highly original. He argues that the government should outlaw all public discrimination of gays and lesbians while at the same time allowing private individuals to discriminate as they wish. Sullivan's approach satisfies the concerns of conservatives and liberals alike, although his old-fashioned definition of laissez-faire liberalism will rile most liberals, and his most radical suggestion, legal recognition of gay marriages, will certainly flutter conservatives' tail feathers. Highly recommended.Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., Ore.

Library Journal

o the volcano of controversy homosexuality has become in American politics, the editor of the "New Republic" brings light rather than more heat. Acknowledging his own partisanship as a homosexual, he nevertheless coolly dissects the four political armies he sees arrayed on the homosexuality battlefield of the culture war. Sullivan finds the first two--prohibitionists, who object to homosexuality on the basis primarily of biblical authority, and liberationists (such as ACT-UP and Queer Nation), radical egalitarians who conceive of homosexuality as a social construct rather than a personal quality--ironically alike because neither engages in the give-and-take of politics, instead issuing demands based in attitudes of, respectively, indisputable rectitude and permanent rebellion. The other two, conservatives and liberals, are politically engaged, but on the issues of homosexuality, they are deeply conflicted internally. Conservatives have long practiced public disapproval and private toleration of homosexuals, but events have conspired to make this practice seem obtuse. Liberals, meanwhile, by attempting to treat individual prejudice against homosexuality as an object of civil rights legislation, have upended their own historic dedication to evenhanded governmental treatment of all citizens. Sullivan finally posits a new politics of homosexuality that blends liberal equality in the eyes of the state with conservative social stability in a program whose twin tenets are open, unimpeded gay military service and legal gay marriage. Skillfully argued and carefully written, this is the best book ever on gay politics.

Ray Olson