Beyond Queer: Challenging Gay Left Orthodoxy
More than Bruce Bawer'sPlace at the Table(1993) and Andrew Sullivan'sVirtually Normal,Beyond Queermarks the end of radical dominance in gay politics and culture, the beginning of a pragmatic and democratic approach to gay issues. Bawer, Sullivan, and 15 others contribute to the anthology, which Bawer assembled. In each of six sections, three or more essays address aspects of a single topic. Those in "Rage, Rage" consider the failures of and the alternatives to the tactics of gay liberation since the 1969 Stonewall riot started the modern gay movement. Subsequent sections take up gay relations with the Right, whether and how gays continue to be socially oppressed, the inadequacies of counterculturally defined gay identity, gays and religion, and "Family Values" (especially gay marriage), respectively. The writing throughout--especially that of gay newspaper columnist Paul Varnell--is lucid, cogent, respectful of both readers and subjects; here is none of the name-calling, ranting, and truculent defensiveness of most gay political "discourse" --which is part of the whole effort's point, after all.Ray Olson