• The Battle for Gay Existence
  
  
• A Society Holds Off Extinction
  
  
• Books Received

The Battle for Gay Existence

Examining the relationship between sexuality and the state
Gay and Lesbian Politics: Sexuality
and the Emergence of an Ethos
Mark Blasius *90
Temple University Press,
$39.95 cloth, $18.95 paper
Perhaps 1995 is an appropriate time to take political and historical stock of the movement for lesbian and gay rights. Despite significant cultural, political, and legal gains, the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community increasingly faces threats from the Religious Right and conservative Republicans. Gay men and lesbians still face harassment in the street, in the workplace, and in the home. And almost 15 years into the AIDS epidemic, no cure for the disease is in sight. Thus, for reasons of survival in the face of political and cultural adversity, it is imperative for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals to examine the meaning of our bonds to each other and to examine how the gay community fits into the political economy today.
Mark Blasius *90's book Gay and Lesbian Politics: Sexuality and the Emergence of an Ethos does just that: Blasius explores how the history of oppression of non-normative sexualities and the complex relationship of sexuality to the state have produced what he calls "an ethos of lesbian and gay existence."
Gay and Lesbian Politics joins the growing body of academic work under the rubric of "lesbian, gay, and bisexual studies" or "queer studies." Blasius's work, one rich with detailed historical information about the emergence of the lesbian and gay community and identity, draws upon the work of radical social historian Michel Foucault, who has offered one of the first and most challenging pictures of the relationship between sexuality and the modern state. In addition, Blasius places his discussion within the more traditional discipline of political and ethical theory. His book will be of interest to traditional political theorists and to those interested in more recent work in the history of sexuality.
A professor of political science at City University of New York, LaGuardia, Blasius uses the term "ethos" (the distinguishing attitudes or beliefs of an individual or group) because he finds it more encompassing than "lifestyle," "sexual preference," or "sexual orientation," terms more generally used when discussing the gay community. Ethos captures a sense of community, and it has political and ethical overtones. ("Ethos" and "ethics" both derive from the Greek for "disposition" or "character.") For Blasius, ethics is the way in which individuals "create, elaborate, take care of, and change their own selves"-in a word, live.
Coming out embodies the political nature of the lesbian and gay ethos. And, states Blasius, coming out is the ethical imperative of lesbian and gay existence. It is an act that challenges the "truth" claimed by society regarding heterosexuality and homosexuality, and creates new possibilities for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals and for "politics generally," he explains. Coming out moves lesbian and gay existence into the public domain. Here, Blasius tenders an important critique of the legal claims based on the right to privacy, which, although strategically necessary to secure the goals of freedom and acceptance, are limited. The right to privacy emphasizes the private and the hidden. Yet the battle for lesbian and gay rights (safety from harassment and assault, support for our chosen families, the eradication of arcane laws that make homosexuality illegal) must be fought in public, not within the confines of the right to privacy, which threatens to codify the closet.
The emergence of gay identity and community, the very presence of individuals who connect their experiences as men loving men or women loving women to such an identity, fundamentally challenges existing "truths" and it opens up new possibilities of relating on both intimate and community levels for all individuals, straight or gay. Norms, as Blasius reminds us, are purely relational and intrasocial, even as they attempt to structure the way in which we live. Lesbians, gays, and bisexuals living in a homophobic society must understand how norms translate into "truths" through systematic domination and cultural oppression. Almost any gay individual has felt the pain of these "truths" (through discrimination, harassment, assault) even though they have no basis in any essential truth or reality.
Blasius constructs an analysis that is informed by the traditional tools and underpinnings of political theory at the same time as it challenges them. By so doing, he demonstrates how the emergence of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community breaks open traditional political categories and opens up opportunities for all individuals.
-Jennifer Kates *95
Jennifer Kates, a former staff director of Princeton's Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Alliance, is a health-policy consultant in Washington, D.C.

A Society Holds Off Extinction

Saving Wildlife: A Century of Conservation
Donald Goddard '56, general editor
Harry N. Abrams, $49.50
Animal lovers and anyone who understands the need for wildlife conservation may enjoy perusing Saving Wildlife: A Century of Conservation, a history of conservation since 1895 and an anthology of the Wildlife Conservation Society. This worldwide organization was founded a hundred years ago to create the Bronx Zoo. From the start, the society's goals included preserving wildlife and instructing the public. Donald Goddard '56, the society's senior editor, has compiled the history of endangered-species conservation through articles, essays, letters, and field observations that chronicle the thoughts and actions of people who were leaders in the society and the conservation movement in this country: George B. Schaller, William Beebe, Henry Fairfield Osborn 1877, and William Conway, the society's current president. Complementing the text are color photographs of African elephants, a blue-and-yellow macaw, a green-tree boa, and white-naped cranes, among other species.
-Kathryn F. Greenwood

Books Received

From the Margins of Hindu Marriage
Paul B. Courtright *75 and
Lindsey Harlan, eds.
Oxford University Press,
$45 cloth, $17.95 paper

Warp Angel
Stuart Hopen '75
Tor Books, $21.95

Parameters of Slavic Morphosyntax
Steven Franks '77
Oxford University Press,
$75 cloth, $39.95 paper

Sing unto God a New Song: A Contemporary Reading of the Psalms
Herbert J. Levine *77
Indiana University Press, $39.95

Active Portfolio Management:
Quantitative Theory and Applications
Ronald N. Kahn '78 and
Richard C. Grinold
Probus Publishing, $65

The New UN Peacekeeping
Steven R. Ratner '82
St. Martin's Press, $45

Picture Perfect
Jodi Picoult '87
G.P. Putnam's Sons, $23.95

Justice, Liability & Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law
John M. Darley (psychology professor) and Paul H. Robinson
Westview Press, $56.50

Vital Crises in Italian Cinema:
Iconography, Stylistics, Politics
P. Adams Sitney (visual arts professor)
University of Texas Press,
$45 cloth, $17.95 paper

Tigrinya Grammar
John Mason '66, ed.
Orders to Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Foreign Missions, P.O. Box P, Willow Grove, PA 19090-0920. $15 paper

Entrusted: The Moral
Responsibilities of Trusteeship
David H. Smith *67
Indiana University Press, $19.95

Take Home Poems, 1992-1995
Matt. Meyers '70
Orders to Matt. Meyers, HC-66, Box 109, Hillsboro, NM 88042.
$4.25 paper (postpaid)

The Writing Path 1: Poetry and Prose from Writers' Conferences
Michael Pettit '72, ed.
University of Iowa Press,
$32.95 cloth, $14.95 paper

Perimenopause, Preparing for
the Change: A Guide to the Early Stages of Menopause and Beyond
Nancy Lee Teaff '73, M.D. and
Kim Wright Wiley
Prima Publishing, $22.95

From the Margins of Hindu Marriage
Paul B. Courtright *75 and
Lindsey Harlan, eds.
Oxford University Press,
$45 cloth, $17.95 paper

Warp Angel
Stuart Hopen '75
Tor Books, $21.95

Parameters of Slavic Morphosyntax
Steven Franks '77
Oxford University Press,
$75 cloth, $39.95 paper

Sing unto God a New Song: A Contemporary Reading of the Psalms
Herbert J. Levine *77
Indiana University Press, $39.95

Geometric Measure Theory:
A Beginner's Guide (2nd ed.)
Frank Morgan *77
Academic Press, $34.95

Active Portfolio Management:
Quantitative Theory and Applications
Ronald N. Kahn '78 and Richard C. Grinold
Probus Publishing, $65

Peripheral Visions: Deterrence
theory and American Foreign Policy
in the Third World, 1965-1990
Ted Hopf '81
University of Michigan Press, $49.50

Get the Lead Out: NYPIRG's
Handbook for Lead Poisoning
Prevention (3rd ed.)
Catherine McVay Hughes '82
and Chris Meyer
Orders to NYPIRG Publications, 9 Murray Street, New York, NY 10007-2272. $10 paper

To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson [1879] and the Quest for a New World Order
Thomas J. Knock *82
Princeton University Press, $18.95 paper

The New UN Peacekeeping
Steven R. Ratner '82
St. Martin's Press, $45

Picture Perfect
Jodi Picoult '87
G.P. Putnam's Sons, $23.95

Justice, Liability & Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law
John M. Darley (psychology professor) and Paul H. Robinson
Westview Press, $56.50

Vital Crises in Italian Cinema:
Iconography, Stylistics, Politics
P. Adams Sitney (visual arts professor)
University of Texas Press,
$45 cloth, $17.95 paper

Nine Scorpions in a Bottle: Great Judges and Cases of the Supreme Court
(selected writings of Max Lerner,
compiled and edited by
Richard Cummings '59)
Arcade Publishing, $27.95

Architects of Affluence: The Tsutsumi Family and the Seibu-Saison Enterprises in Twentieth-Century Japan
Thomas R. H. Havens '61
Harvard University Press, $45

Romancing the Grail: Genre, Science, and Quest in Wolfram's Parzival
Arthur B. Groos, Jr. '64
Cornell University Press, $37.50

A History of Canadian Architecture: Volumes 1 and 2
Harold Kalman '64 *71
Oxford University Press, $105

Realizing Mental Health
Roger C. Mills '65
Orders to California School of
Professional Psychology, 1000 S. Fremont,
Alhambra, CA 91803. $26.09

Tigrinya Grammar
John Mason '66, ed.
Orders to Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Foreign Missions, P.O. Box P, Willow Grove, PA 19090-0920. $15 paper

Entrusted: The Moral
Responsibilities of Trusteeship
David H. Smith *67
Indiana University Press, $19.95

Take Home Poems, 1992-1995
Matt. Meyers '70
Orders to Matt. Meyers, HC-66, Box 109, Hillsboro, NM 88042. $4.25 paper (postpaid)

The Writing Path 1: Poetry and Prose from Writers' Conferences
Michael Pettit '72, ed.
University of Iowa Press,
$32.95 cloth, $14.95 paper

Breakthrough Leadership:
Achieving Organizational Alignment
through Hoshin Planning
Mara Minerva Melum '73 and Casey Collett
Orders to American Hospital Association Services, P.O. Box 92683, Chicago, IL 60675-2683. $69 paper

Perimenopause, Preparing for the Change: A Guide to the Early Stages of Menopause and Beyond
Nancy Lee Teaff '73, M.D. and
Kim Wright Wiley
Prima Publishing, $22.95

From the Margins of Hindu Marriage
Paul B. Courtright *75 and
Lindsey Harlan, eds.
Oxford University Press,
$45 cloth, $17.95 paper

Warp Angel
Stuart Hopen '75
Tor Books, $21.95

Parameters of Slavic Morphosyntax
Steven Franks '77
Oxford University Press,
$75 cloth, $39.95 paper

Sing unto God a New Song: A Contemporary Reading of the Psalms
Herbert J. Levine *77
Indiana University Press, $39.95

Geometric Measure Theory:
A Beginner's Guide (2nd ed.)
Frank Morgan *77
Academic Press, $34.95

Active Portfolio Management:
Quantitative Theory and Applications
Ronald N. Kahn '78 and Richard C. Grinold
Probus Publishing, $65

Peripheral Visions: Deterrence
theory and American Foreign Policy
in the Third World, 1965-1990
Ted Hopf '81
University of Michigan Press, $49.50

Get the Lead Out: NYPIRG's
Handbook for Lead Poisoning
Prevention (3rd ed.)
Catherine McVay Hughes '82
and Chris Meyer
Orders to NYPIRG Publications, 9 Murray Street, New York, NY 10007-2272. $10 paper

To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson [1879] and the Quest for a New World Order
Thomas J. Knock *82
Princeton University Press, $18.95 paper

The New UN Peacekeeping
Steven R. Ratner '82
St. Martin's Press, $45

Picture Perfect
Jodi Picoult '87
G.P. Putnam's Sons, $23.95

Justice, Liability & Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law
John M. Darley (psychology professor) and Paul H. Robinson
Westview Press, $56.50

Vital Crises in Italian Cinema:
Iconography, Stylistics, Politics
P. Adams Sitney (visual arts professor)
University of Texas Press,
$45 cloth, $17.95 paper