Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Bristling with insight,
Born This Way is one of the most important and thought-provoking works of LGBTQ+ scholarship this century. The clearest path to genuine equality, Wuest argues, may not rest on biological claims about the nature of sexuality and gender, but, rather, on claims about the forms of social provision to which everyone is entitled.” -- Cary Franklin | University of California, Los Angeles
“Addressing crucial questions that are both timely and timeless, this powerful, persuasive, nuanced book is a conversation-changing account of the sources and consequences of scientific authority in the struggles over LGBTQ+ rights and politics in the United States.” -- Dara Strolovitch | Yale University
“A devastatingly smart analysis,
Born This Way deftly reveals the political pitfalls of relying too heavily on scientific claims in securing rights and legal protections—and, more fundamentally, that we can never divorce science from politics.” -- Katrina Karkazis | Amherst College
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part 1 Origins
1 The Science of Civil Rights: The Rise and Demise of Sexual Deviancy
2 Desire in the Throes of Power: Gay Liberation, Psychiatry, and the Politics of Classification
3 “Why Is My Child Gay?”: The Liberal Foundations of Born This Way
4 Immutability before the Gay Gene: Biology and Civil Rights Litigation
Part 2 Evolutions and Adaptations
5 Rise of the Gay Gene: Science, Law, Culture, and Hype
6 From Pathology to “Born Perfect”: Marriage Equality and Conversion Therapy Bans
7 The Scientific Gaze in Transgender and Bisexual Politics
Conclusion: Beyond Born This Way: Fluid Desires, Fixed Identities, and Entrenched Inequalities
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
