Stuff to Read (3/11/10): empathy, imagination, and gay rights

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Just one recommendation today, a piece from Monday that I've been meaning to highlight here.

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Slate: "Why Has a Divided America Taken Gay Rights Seriously?" by Dahlia Lithwick, reviewing University of Chicago philosopher and law professor Martha Nussbaum's new book, From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law. I can't speak to the book, which I haven't read, but Lithwick's review certainly makes me want to read it, and it certainly seems to be a book that ought to be taken seriously.

Nussbaum's argument, in a nutshell, is that, to quote Lithwick, "much of the political rhetoric around denying equal rights to gay Americans is rooted in the language of disgust." It is through "greater public empathy and imagination," including in the courts, that disgust, which can turn others into "subhumans," can be overcome:

In a country more polarized than ever on virtually every social issue, we have been curiously willing to take gay rights seriously.

Perhaps that's because, as Nussbaum suggests, we have been so willing to hear compelling personal narratives, ranging from the fictional Will of Will and Grace to the stories of politicians and athletes and friends. She especially credits the arts -- such as Sean Penn's exuberant portrayal of Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant's film Milk -- with sentiment-shifting power. She also assigns a catalytic role to the courts. Nussbaum invokes the dawning public awareness of how black schoolchildren experienced "separate but equal" as an assault on their self-image in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. She cites the striking down of anti-miscegenation laws in Loving v. Virginia as another turning point, spurring a broader recognition that the pursuit of passion, fulfillment, and happiness belongs to all couples. It has often been the judiciary that has pushed Americans to imagine a reality, and a dream of equality, larger than their own experience.

Read the review in full. Even if you don't end up reading Nussbaum's book, there's much food for thought here.