Author Archives: Jennifer Brown

Imagine that one day you hear your child at play say to another “The way you throw is so gay.” It seems “gay” has become a catch-all insult. How do you respond? You could just let it pass. After all, home and family should provide a refuge from the clamor of the outside world. Gay rights are fine, you might think, but social change is something that happens out there, in society, not within our walls. Then again, maybe social change must begin at home. Many heterosexual people –even those who avoid political activity — have become allies in the… Continue reading →

4 p.m. EST update on June 7, 2005: I’m told the pledge form is working again. My apologies for the inconvenience. Despite the Goodridge victory in Massachusetts, the battle for same-sex marriage has only begun. Many states have passed constitutional bans on gay marriage. Opponents of equal marriage rights even seek to amend the U.S. Constitution. The Vacation Pledge for Equal Marriage Rights encourages states to take the landmark step to democratically legalize same-sex marriage. Why is legislative action so important and how can individuals help to promote it?… Continue reading →

Here’s a proposal for making progress toward equality in the military that is again an example of both ambiguation and informational incrementalism. It comes from Chapter 6 of Straightforward. Ian and I support the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But is there anything that can be done as a precursor to changing this law? Imagine that every soldier upon entering the military was asked a simple question. Would you prefer to serve in a command without any gay personnel? Soldiers would know that if they answer “No” they would be assigned to an “inclusive” command, and that if they… Continue reading →

In his 1995 Chicago Law Review article, The Regulation of Social Meaning, Larry Lessig discussed some of the rhetorical devices that can change a society’s shared understanding of the meaning conveyed by a given word or action. One of these, Lessig explained, was “ambiguation,” which gives “a particular act, the meaning of which is to be regulated, a second meaning as well, one that acts to undermine the negative effects of the first.” In Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights, we argue that when heterosexuals tolerate ambiguity about their own sexual orientation, they use ambiguation to promote… Continue reading →

I really enjoyed reading the comments on my post from yesterday, and the many responses those comments engendered. Several people have already said much of what I would say to explain our references to privilege and the role it plays in mobilizing heterosexual allies. One point I should be up front about: Straightforward is unabashedly written for an audience that is already on board with the idea of equality for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. The book does not attempt to marshal arguments against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. We’re assuming that our readers already agree with us… Continue reading →

Let me take a stab at mapping out what Ian and I are going to try to accomplish over the next week. As Larry mentioned, we’ve just published Straightforward – which makes the argument that mobilizing heterosexual support is crucial to making progress on securing equal rights for gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens. The book is packed with advice about what people can do – on personal and public levels. But what we really want to stress here over the next week are a series of informational innovations that can promote equality in the military, in the boy scouts (and… Continue reading →