Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies

by Richard D. Mohr

Philosopher Richard Mohr's articulate exposition of the moral dilemmas facing the gay community, Gay Ideas, addresses, in diverse and often shocking ways, how gays ought to represent and position themselves in the face of an increasingly threatening climate of homophobia, repression, and violence. Includes 36 illustrations.

In one of these combative, impassioned, often controversial essays, Mohr, professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois, defends "outing" (making public another person's homosexuality against that person's wishes) as a moral act, a means to prevent gays from participating in their own oppression. Reviewing the Supreme Court's dismal record on gay rights, he argues that the Court's recent decisions on homosexuality are instruments by which federal courts are reversing blacks' civil rights. The author chides the gay activist group ACT-UP for a tendency to embrace "quick leftward-leaning ideological fixes." He interprets the AIDS Quilt commemorating AIDS victims as "a source of ideals," not merely a political statement. Mohr finds homoerotic resonances in Wagner's Parsifal and splices this analysis together with 36 explicit artworks by Robert Mapplethorpe and others in an attempt to show that "gay men have more to offer democracy than democracy has had to offer gay men." He also exposes anti-gay stereotyes as sources of unexamined fear and hatred.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mohr (philosophy, Univ. of Illinois-Urbana) has a talent for turning an argument on its head just to see it topple. In this collection of essays on some of the more controversial topics in gay studies, sometimes the argument topples and sometimes it just wobbles a bit. On the future of civil rights laws, Mohr deftly examines the Supreme Court's apparent decision to drop the right to privacy as a Constitutional principle as expressed in the Bowers v. Hardwick case. However, in arguing against the notion of the social construction of homosexuality, Mohr confuses the biological condition of homosexuality with the issue of gay identity and culture. The concept of "outing" closeted gay celebrities and politicians takes on the nobility of a moral crusade despite an unnecessarily complex argument. This book has stirred controversy even before its publication; as reported in the press, it was turned down by nine publishers and 23 printers. Most of the controversy surrounds Mohr's use of explicit, homoerotic illustrations to support the thesis that homosexuality offers society an ideal model for the principle of equality. Recommended for academic libraries or larger public libraries with informed lay readers.
- Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., Ore.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Genres: Gay, LGBT, Nonfiction, Queer

311 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Tad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very outdated. And to be honest, quite a challenge to read. And I was somewhat offended by some of his ideas. It had been sitting unread on my bookshelf for years and now that I’ve read it, I’ll be making sure to get rid of it as soon as possible.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know. He's a talented writer and philosopher and he spends the first part of the book making a strong case for Outing, which was a big deal in the early 1990s, but I feel like he defends himself with a kind of logic that doesn't have the individual emotional appeal to reach most people. I wasn't reached. He also had some things to say about philosophy and the arts and there are quite a number of photographs that could loosely be described as "porn." That's not to be insulting; that's just what they are. I'll admit to not understanding a lot of this book despite having read many of the philosophers he's quoting or arguing with because I didn't understand them, either. It's a very high level of queer theory.