A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights

Sensing ``America to be at a turning point on gay issues,'' Mohr ( Gay Ideas ) uses often forceful, sometimes sophistic, arguments to identify gay rights with the civil rights that protect women, blacks and other minority groups. Demanding equality for the gay person ``as a social creature and community member,'' the author urges legalization of marriage and adoption for gays. He invokes moral and legal censure of bias crimes, along with discrimination or exclusion of gays from schools, housing and employment, including the military. The tacit right to privacy, Mohr also contends, should apply to sexual activity. He also holds that ``the assessment of risk of AIDS should be left to the individual,'' who, however, ``should be viewed as morally innocent in its contagion and spread.'' (Apr.)