Sexual Politics: The Gay Person in America Today

by Shannon Gilreath

Contemporary and controversial, Shannon Gilreath's Sexual Politics is an important update to the continuing debate over the place of gay people in American law, politics, and religion. Gilreath incisively navigates a number of complex issues, including the delicate balance between sexual privacy and public equality, the entwining of religion and U.S. law and politics, and gay marriage. He offers astute academic observation and depth of personal reflection to create an unmatched critique of gay people in American society. Ultimately, Gilreath argues for the further emergence of a gay and lesbian ethos of public attentiveness and the practice of transformative politics, encompassing all those activities of gay and lesbian art, literature, sports, business, education, spirituality, and otherwise conventional forms of politics. Conversational and written with a compelling frankness, this book is vital for the serious legal and political student and the informed general reader alike.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 2006

Reviews

[Allan Savage]

Gilreath has written a book that treats of a changing American perspective on politics and homosexuality. (From the point of view of clinical psychology, Christopher Shelley attempted something similar within Adlerian psychology in his Contemporary Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Homosexulities, 1998). Throughout his book Gilreath encourages gays to work in concert and introduce positive political policies into the American context. He provides the reader with a fair assessment of the factors that have impeded progress in the legal recognition of gays in public life. Part I is historical, outlining religious and social issues as part of the mix. In Part II he reviews elements of society that have effected, and continue to effect, the introduction of laws respecting gay life in the public forum. Even though Gilreath restricts his comments to the American scene, this book makes a significant contribution to that literature available to anyone interested in learning about the phenomenon of homosexuality with the intent to overcome ignorance. Gilreath's contribution is principled and well thought-out. It presents, to my mind, an excellent point of departure for gay and straight readers alike to begin a serious non-prejudicial examination of contemporary sexual human rights.

[The University of Akron Press]

Sexual Politics (Series on Law, Politics and Society) by Shannon Gilreath (2006)