Libertarianism & Gay Politics

The reason why I think it's important for liberals not to take the libertarian line on this issue is that libertarian-style arguments tend to obscure the extent to which real progress on something like gay rights is going to require something other than gay rights legislation, namely action in the social sphere designed to convince people of the substantive view that homosexuality is not wrong. It's the kind of issue where changing the popular culture to give more positive portrayals of gay people (something that has, I think, happened over the past fifteen years) will probably accomplish more than legislative action aimed at ending discrimination. That's not to say that I wouldn't support anti-discrimination legislation, but merely to point out that such legislation would neither really solve the problem (which is dislike of gays) and that gaining support for legislative action will require a pre-existing majority of pro-gay voters that's going to have to be created on the society side of the state-society divide.

Posted by filchyboy at February 13, 2003 12:00 AM | TrackBack