how should a predominantly heterosexual society should treat those citizens who love members of their own sex?

prevailing public positions on homosexuality

Prohibitionists regard same sex physical love as a sickness or a crime against nature, requiring cure or punishment.

Liberationists, exemplified by historian Michel Foucault and ACT UP, regard homosexuality as a social construct defined variously by individual cultures.

Conservatives combine private tolerance of homosexuality with public disapproval or discretion, believing that public acceptance could undermine the family.

Liberals enmesh homosexuals in a web of rights and protections, yet their own arguments for free expression, association have been turned against them.

Each position has philosophical, religious, and social foundations and implications, from the misplaced moral outrage of the far right to the victim politics of the left.

The equality of homosexuals means:

• an end to all public discrimination against homosexuals,
• equal opportunity and inclusion in the military,
• unbiased teaching about homosexuality in public schools
• legalized gay and lesbian marriage.

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