In light of the dialogue surrounding the repeal of DADT and a day after pointing to David Bahati, Ugandan homophobia and American evangelicals, a review of Martha Nussbaum‘s From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law (Inalienable Rights), by Dahlia Lithwick in Slate from last spring:
Nussbaum…explains that much of the political rhetoric around denying equal rights to gay Americans is rooted in the language of disgust. Their activities are depicted as “vile and revolting,” threatening to “contaminate and defile” the rest of us. Looked at starkly, she argues, much of the anti-gay argument is bound up in feces and saliva, germs, contagion and blood.
The philosophical question for Nussbaum is whether disgust of this sort is a “reliable guide to lawmaking.” She cites Leon Kass, head of the President’s Council on Bioethics in the George W. Bush administration, who has argued that it is; that visceral public disgust contains a “wisdom” that lies beneath rational argument. Then she proceeds to annihilate that argument by offering example after example of discarded disgust-based policies, from India’s denigration of its “untouchables” to the Nazi view of Jews, to a legally sanctioned regime of separate swimming pools and water fountains in the Jim Crow South. …
Perhaps the most radical aspect of Nussbaum’s work, however, is her prescription for moving past the politics of disgust to the politics of humanity… Nussbaum calls for “imagination” and “empathy,” for respect and the willingness to listen to new narratives. In effect, this is a moral call to walk in the other guy’s moccasins before we call him revolting. She observes that this “capacity for generous and flexible engagement with the sufferings and hopes of other people” was described by Adam Smith (of all people) back in the 18th century, even though it is derided as unmoored, mushy-headed, and even dangerous today. In Nussbaum’s formulation, imagination and empathy are essential to overcoming the childish biases that allow us to use our legal machinery to turn others into subhumans.
These quotes are not intended to revel in moral victory. Rather, the aim is to keep that victory humble; human. Christian conservatives see their losses looming. Those who truly believe that same sex relations are an abomination have upped the vitriol in their rhetoric. They simply can’t comprehend how their moral views — views that until only recently were the majority public opinion — are coming to be recognized as immoral.
The more strident they become the more likely it is that Christian conservatives will come to be widely seen as downright bigoted. With that, their moral views will be subject to the same abhorrence that has victimized lgbt people for so many years. Roles will be reversed. And vengeance is sweet. But if we embrace a politics of humanity, as I do, that vengeful abhorrence must be replaced by an understanding empathy.
I live in a socially conservative, Christian conservative, world. Some of my favorite conversations happen when people open up and tell me about how challenging it is for them to accept me for who I am. They imagine (remember?) a godless gay agenda that didn’t want to be bound by monogamous hetero-norms or to fight America’s wars.
I explain that I believe that agenda was a response to social stigma and ostracism; that it is a testament to the character of the lgbt community that they could build their own community centers, social and political organizations, businesses and neighborhoods and earn their full place in civic life. The gay agenda today is in favor of inclusion in houses of worship, the military and marriage rights.
It was a long hard road to get here, but that’s an easy sell. Still, I’m as subject to angry vengeance as the next person. I work hard every day to live a politics of humanity. If you catch me taking undue righteous umbrage at Bahati or anyone else, you will help me out by calling me on it!
RELATED: In a future post I’ll explain how I square the views expressed here tonight with those in this one, In Praise of Intolerance.