Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality.

• Author: Burr, Chandler

Andrew Sullivan Alfreda. Knopf $22

By Chandler Burr

Virtually Normal is a meticulously argued, precisely written book about a thorny political problem: the role of homosexuals and homosexuality in American society. It is an attempt, to quote its author, "to think through the arguments on all sides as carefully and honestly as possible; to take the unalterable experience of all of us, heterosexual and homosexual, and try to make some social and political sense of it."

To take Andrew Sullivan's last chapters on the politics of homosexuality first, he argues that homosexuals do not pose a moral or political threat to the country. But his strategy for breaking down the barriers gays face in this country combines a liberal ideology with a deep respect for traditional institutions. What emerges from this hybrid is a most practical prescription for better integrating the gay community into the society at large.

While the liberals have their hearts in the right place, Sullivan argues, their obsession with anti-discrimination laws has set up more obstacles than it has tom down. Gays have become a "special interest," and homosexual rights organizations are beginning to show some of the negative characteristics, inherent to that status. "The liberal," Sullivan writes, "should be wary of identifying his or her tradition with a particular ... cause; for, in that process, the whole potential of liberalism's appeal is lost." How much of the micromanaged civil rights legislative agenda, the author asks, is actually necessary for gays, particularly as gays "do not even have to seek, as blacks did before them, the right to be integrated into the military; they are already integrated. They are simply not recognized."

True liberalism, Sullivan argues, would call simply for an end to state discrimination, specifically the bans on military service and marriage. It is this respect for traditionally conservative institutions that gives Sullivan's liberalism its strength. Being prohibited from these two pillars of American culture has marginalized the gay community, Sullivan points out. They do not lead "normal lives" for any reason other than that they are not allowed to lead them by law. The familiar stereotype that gays are promiscuous and immoral, for instance, would not stand if the country regularly saw homosexual marriages. Gays would not be perceived as subverting American values if they were seen in the military fighting and dying for those values.

Writing...