ABSTRACT
In the August 30, 1978 edition of In These Times, former new leftist Michael Lerner wrote an article called "Sanctify the Family Since New Forms Prove Useless." In 1981 Lerner proposed a "Family Bill of Rights" and "National Family Day" announcing the formation of his new organization, Friends of the Family. Lerner's question "what is legitimate and reasonable" about the right got answered in February 1982 by John Judis, the editor of In These Times. Judis, like Lerner, invoked the mythical family where rape, child abuse, and violence against women barely exist – where nurturing for all is the norm instead of the occasional exception. In the article he exposes what many of us expected all along from the left pro-family movement – their base anti-feminism and hostility towards the principles of gay liberation. Judis is thereby maintaining that the left's first commitment should be to heterosexuals who have children within the confines of the conventional family.
