The Long Arc of Justice

Richard D. Mohr adopts a humanistic and philosophical approach to assessing public policy issues affecting homosexuals. His nuanced case for legal and social acceptance applies widely held ethical principles to various issues, including same-sex marriage, AIDS, and gays in the military. Mohr examines the nature of prejudices and other cultural forces that work against lesbian and gay causes and considers the role that sexuality plays in national rituals. In his support of same-sex marriage, Mohr defines matrimony as the development and maintenance of intimacy through which people meet their basic needs and carry out their everyday living, and he contends that this definition applies equally to homosexual and heterosexual couples. By drawing on culturally, legally, and ethically based arguments, Mohr moves away from tired political rhetoric and reveals the important ways in which the struggle for gay rights and acceptance relates to mainstream American society, history, and political life.

Engaging the whole spectrum of public-policy issues affecting gays and lesbians from a humanistic and philosophical approach, Richard Mohr uses the tools of his trade to assess the logic and ethics of gay rights. Focusing on ideas and values, Mohr's nuanced case for legal and social acceptance applies widely held ethical principles to various issues, including same-sex marriage, AIDS, and gays in the military. By drawing on cultural-, legal-, and ethical-based arguments, Mohr moves away from tired political rhetoric and reveals the important ways in which the struggle for gay rights and acceptance relates to mainstream American society, history, and political life.Mohr forcefully counters moralistic and religious arguments regularly invoked to keep gay men and women from achieving the same rights as heterosexuals. He examines the nature of prejudices and other cultural forces that work against lesbian and gay causes and considers the role that sexuality plays in the national rituals by which Americans define themselves. In his support of same-sex marriage, Mohr defines matrimony as the development and maintenance of intimacy through the means by which people meet their basic needs and carry out their everyday living. Mohr contends that this definition, in both its legal and moral sense, applies equally to homosexual and heterosexual couples. Mohr also considers gays and lesbians as community members as he explores the prospect for greater legal and social inclusion. He concludes by suggesting that recent progress in addressing civil rights for gays and lesbians and the nation's symbolic use of gay issues on both sides of the political spectrum calls for a culturally focused gay politics.

Richard D. Mohr is professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois-Urbana. He is the author of The Platonic Cosmology; Gays/Justice: A Study of Ethics, Society, and Law; Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies; A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights; and Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick. A public intellectual, he has also written for The Nation, The Advocate, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Boston Globe, and the Chicago Tribune.

Patrick D. Hopkins:
An excellent book... Definitely worth reading and is refreshing in its creativity, clarity, and conviction that justice is slowly moving.

Richard Labonte:
Eloquent articulation of what gays deserve from American society.

Jesse Monteagudo:
The result is a book that is a readable and relevant as its predecessor was over a decade ago.

The Long Arc of Justice is a powerful little book of applied ethics in which Richard Mohr applies his characteristic analytical rigor and penetrating cultural analysis to the broad range of important gay and lesbian issues... I expect this book will become the industry standard.

Sarah Scalia:
The book redefines and elevates contemporary discussions regarding rights for gays and lesbians.

James S. Stramel:
The Long Arc of Justice is a powerful little book of applied ethics in which Richard Mohr devotes his characteristic analytic rigor to a broad range of important gay and lesbian issues.

An engaging and challenging blend of politics, ethics and philosophical discourse, Arc is a must-read for anyone who's even remotely interested in where the queer rights movement is going and where it has been.

Richard Labonte:
This eloquent articulation of what gays deserve from American society.

Johanna Lunglhofer:
A clever and insightful explanation...Throughout the book, Mohr makes his points well.