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Should heterosexual Americans even care about the rights of gays? Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff argue well that the movement for gay rights is of fundamental importance to the continuing maintenance and growth of individual liberties of all Americans.

Summary

Title: Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America
Author: by Michael Nava & Robert Dawidoff
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312117647


 

Book Review

Although it will come as no great surprise to anyone who pays attention to the American social and political climate, Nava and Dawidoff explain how the assault against equality for homosexuals originates almost exclusively with the religious right. This narrow sectarian movement with a loud voice but certainly not the support of all Christians pushes to undermine basic principles of American government, particularly the individual?s basic right to chart the course of their own life.

The book begins with a commonly neglected premise: gay and lesbians are first and foremost American citizens. Nava and Dawidoff explain how the rights guaranteed to each and every individual American should not be denied to a few due simply to the people whom them happen to love.

What is at stake here is not simply the treatment of gay communities but, in the larger picture, the future of basic constitutional principles of individual freedom and liberty. If the rights of a few can be lost simply because of something as trivial as sexual orientation, then the rights of all Americans is placed in a dangerous position.

The way in which Americans react to the question of equal treatment for gay citizens essentially amounts to a live test for how they will treat the basic idea of equal treatment for all citizens.

The authors readily acknowledge that although they are raising sound logical and legal arguments, what they are facing is something much deeper and sometimes stronger: emotion. Gay rights opposition resonates with claims about nature, morality, tradition and God. It is difficult for science and law and reason to even address these, much less overcome them.

Thus Nava and Dawidoff also attempt to appeal to emotion: namely, the emotional ties which Americans tend to have to the principles of liberty and freedom. And they do a very good job. Anyone looking to read a basic, accessible, and comprehensive account of the current lines between supporters and opponents of gay rights need look no farther.