ABSTRACT
In this Article, Professor Ball uses the writings of Michel Foucault on ethics as a care of the self to explore the meaning of a contemporary gay and lesbian sexual ethic. Professor Ball argues that the legal, medical, and moral decodification of same-gender sexuality that has taken place in the United States in the last forty years has led to the emergence of a gay and lesbian sexual ethic defined by values such as openness, mutuality, and pleasure. Professor Ball analogizes the emergence of this sexual ethic to the ethics as practices of freedom in ancient Greece and Rome as identified by Foucault. A gay and lesbian sexual ethic, Professor Ball argues, offers a powerful alternative to the traditional Christian sexual ethic that makes moral judgments based, in part, on the nature of particular sexual acts. Professor Ball also explores the role that the capacity for autonomy plays in the development of a gay and lesbian sexual ethic as he seeks to find a middle ground between postmodernist and liberal supporters of gay rights.
