Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights - Hardcover

Ayres, Ian; Brown, Jennifer Gerarda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691121346 ISBN 13: 9780691121345

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2005

Synopsis

What can straight people do to support gay rights? How much work or sacrifice must allies take on to do their share? Ian Ayres and Jennifer Brown--law professors, activists, husband and wife--propose practical strategies for helping straight men and women advocate for and with the gay community.



Straightforward advances a thesis that is at once simple and groundbreaking: to make real progress at the central flashpoints of controversy--marriage rights, employment discrimination, gays in the military, exclusion from the Boy Scouts, and religious controversies over homosexuality--straight as well as gay people need to speak up and act for equality. Ayres and Brown take aim at both the hearts and minds of the general public, focusing on strategies that can change the incentives and therefore the behavior of the recalcitrant.


The book is peppered with stories about real people and the decisions they have faced at home, in church, at work, in school, and in politics. It is also filled with creative legal and economic strategies for influencing public and corporate decision-making. For example, Ayres and Brown propose the development of a "fair employment mark" to help companies advertise inclusive employment policies. They also show how a simple pledge to vacation in states that legalize gay marriage can create powerful incentives for legislatures to amend their marriage laws.


Engagingly written and sure to spark debate, Straightforward promises to change the way America thinks about--and participates in--the gay rights movement.

About this title

About the Author

Ian Ayres is the William K. Townsend Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is a columnist for Forbes magazine and radio commentator on Marketplace. He is the coauthor of Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small and Pervasive Prejudice? Non-Traditional Evidence of Race and Gender Discrimination. Jennifer Gerarda Brown is Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law, and a Visiting Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School.

From the Back Cover

"No civil rights movement is ever won solely by those who are the primary targets of discrimination. Gay rights are merely non-gay rights made available to all, and all Americans have a stake in a nation that treats us all fairly. InStraightforward, Jennifer Gerarda Brown and Ian Ayres start the brainstorming on creative ways that non-gay people can raise their majority voices, wield their clout, and do their part to achieve equal rights for all, including their gay loved ones and fellow citizens."--Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry

"Straightforward provides an important and much-needed guidebook for enlisting straight Americans to the cause of gay rights. Just as the civil-rights movement of the 1960s called upon blacks and whites to band together to achieve social gains, Ayres and Brown make the case for a new gay-straight alliance as a force for expanding not just gay rights but broad human rights for all Americans."--Richard Florida, author ofThe Rise of the Creative Class.

"Gay people will always constitute a small percentage of the population and therefore our rights will always depend on the support of non-gay people. I wish all that all non-gay people possessed the wisdom that Ian Ayres and Jennifer Brown show here--and now they can. This remarkable book doesn't just explain the benefits of supporting gay rights--it actually tells how to do so. A rare combination of insightful analysis and instructive tactical suggestions, it provides novel, exciting, and very specific ideas about how to change the world. It's like a gay rights recipe book. And it's arrived at just the right moment. Buy it. Read it. Implement its suggestions. Make a difference."--William B. Rubenstein, Chair, Charles R. Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law, UCLA School of Law

"In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence, equal treatment for gay people is an idea whose time has come. No one has explored that idea as thoroughly asStraightforward. An added bonus is that Brown and Ayres offer strategies for gay-friendly straight people to advance gay equality in the political and social arena. Every American, gay or straight, should read this book!"--William Eskridge, author of Equality Practice

"If you've become bored with the predictable arguments for and against gay rights, straightforward is the book you need to read. Whether you agree or disagree with its ideas, I guarantee you'll be hearing most of them for the first time.Straightforward speaks to everyone--parents, teachers, clergy, employers and soldiers--and offers a solid, economics-based way out of the usual gay-rights impasse."--Diane Mazur, University of Florida

"Brown and Ayres have big hearts and their critical intelligence is second to none.Straightforward brings the full force of both to bear with devastating effect against the deep prejudices that taint heterosexual attitudes toward lesbians and gays. The authors think heterosexuals can do better, and make some excellent concrete suggestions as to how. This is compelling reading for anyone who takes equality seriously."--William Bratton, Georgetown University

"This is one of the most important works on gay rights in recent memory. The book elaborates on a crucial (but often overlooked) insight, namely that if the gay rights movement is to attain its most important goals, it needs the assistance and contributions of heterosexuals. No other book speaks so directly and effectively to heterosexuals who generally support gay rights but may not have given much thought to what practical steps they can take to advance gay rights causes."--Carlos Ball, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State

From the Inside Flap

"No civil rights movement is ever won solely by those who are the primary targets of discrimination. Gay rights are merely non-gay rights made available to all, and all Americans have a stake in a nation that treats us all fairly. In Straightforward, Jennifer Gerarda Brown and Ian Ayres start the brainstorming on creative ways that non-gay people can raise their majority voices, wield their clout, and do their part to achieve equal rights for all, including their gay loved ones and fellow citizens."--Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry

"Straightforward provides an important and much-needed guidebook for enlisting straight Americans to the cause of gay rights. Just as the civil-rights movement of the 1960s called upon blacks and whites to band together to achieve social gains, Ayres and Brown make the case for a new gay-straight alliance as a force for expanding not just gay rights but broad human rights for all Americans."--Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class.

"Gay people will always constitute a small percentage of the population and therefore our rights will always depend on the support of non-gay people. I wish all that all non-gay people possessed the wisdom that Ian Ayres and Jennifer Brown show here--and now they can. This remarkable book doesn't just explain the benefits of supporting gay rights--it actually tells how to do so. A rare combination of insightful analysis and instructive tactical suggestions, it provides novel, exciting, and very specific ideas about how to change the world. It's like a gay rights recipe book. And it's arrived at just the right moment. Buy it. Read it. Implement its suggestions. Make a difference."--William B. Rubenstein, Chair, Charles R. Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law, UCLA School of Law

"In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence, equal treatment for gay people is an idea whose time has come. No one has explored that idea as thoroughly as Straightforward. An added bonus is that Brown and Ayres offer strategies for gay-friendly straight people to advance gay equality in the political and social arena. Every American, gay or straight, should read this book!"--William Eskridge, author of Equality Practice

"If you've become bored with the predictable arguments for and against gay rights, straightforward is the book you need to read. Whether you agree or disagree with its ideas, I guarantee you'll be hearing most of them for the first time. Straightforward speaks to everyone--parents, teachers, clergy, employers and soldiers--and offers a solid, economics-based way out of the usual gay-rights impasse."--Diane Mazur, University of Florida

"Brown and Ayres have big hearts and their critical intelligence is second to none. Straightforward brings the full force of both to bear with devastating effect against the deep prejudices that taint heterosexual attitudes toward lesbians and gays. The authors think heterosexuals can do better, and make some excellent concrete suggestions as to how. This is compelling reading for anyone who takes equality seriously."--William Bratton, Georgetown University

"This is one of the most important works on gay rights in recent memory. The book elaborates on a crucial (but often overlooked) insight, namely that if the gay rights movement is to attain its most important goals, it needs the assistance and contributions of heterosexuals. No other book speaks so directly and effectively to heterosexuals who generally support gay rights but may not have given much thought to what practical steps they can take to advance gay rights causes."--Carlos Ball, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University, author, The Morality of Gay Rights

"Drawing on the most up-to-date legal and gender theory, this

Reviews

Every gay man and lesbian in America has at least two heterosexual allies willing to actively support their struggle for equality, hypothesize husband-and-wife law professors Ayres (Yale, and also a Forbes columnist) and Brown (Quinnipiac College). They argue that the hetero ally total is something like 20 million-all of whom would actively welcome "pragmatic advice" on how they can support their homosexual friends, which the authors are more than happy to provide. They propose strategies for dealing with hetero privilege-"the range of perks and incentives with which heterosexually identified persons are rewarded for conforming to the dominant sexuality"-exercising it, disabling it and renouncing it-and provide examples of each. They suggest that heterosexuals consider masking their own sexual orientation when doing activism. From the "fair employment mark" (a proposal that would allow consumers to purchase products bearing a mark that signals gay-friendly employment policies) to the "The Vacation Pledge for Equal Marriage Rights" (a Website designed by Ayres and Brown that will collect promises from individuals vowing to spend their tourism dollars in the first state to democratically extend marriage rights to same-sex couples), this practical primer delivers on its promise to provide a "concrete guide to action" by offering innovative economic and legal tactics for influencing public and corporate policy.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691121346
• ISBN 13: 9780691121345
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264