ABSTRACT
Jean Bethke Elshtain’s arguments against gay liberation have a familiar ring. The phantom haunting homosexuality has relatives haunting other political movements as well. The rejection of heterosexuality was tied to similar disavowals of marriage, family, and sex roles. Martha Shelley argued that gay liberationists are “women and men who from the time of our earliest memories have been in revolt against the sex role-structure and the nuclear family structure.” Elshtain’s remaining objections center on two major points: the importance of a clear boundary between the public and the private, and the necessity of the sex roles and social institutions. Elshtain’s warning concerning the danger of an ever-encroaching state regulatory apparatus that threatens any distinction between public and private is a concern worth heeding. Increasing state involvement in all areas of our life could well be dangerous to the democratic form of government.
