Mr. Brudnoy’s Argument

WHAT INTERESTS ME about Mr. Brudnoy’s plea for homosexual rights is that it is offered as a conservative argument. Its point of departure is a national review editorial, its author claims as his own the “conservative temperament,” and it scoffs at those conservatives who resort to “fundamentalist” appeals to Scripture or to “ritualistic” or “totemistic” appeals to “Western civilization.” Not that Mr. Brudnoy offers the least clue to the distinction between the scoundrelly and the legitimate appeals to Scripture and tradition, nor to why we should consider NR’s appeals to them as scoundrelly.

Let us be clear about what Mr. Brudnoy wants. He wants equality not just for homosexuals (who already have it, in that they are measured against the same standards as the rest of us), but for homosexuality itself. We are to stop regarding the sodomite as a second-class citizen—and what is more, we are to stop regarding sodomy as second-class sex. True, he says we (qua free individuals) needn’t practice, or like, or approve homosexuality. But we must (qua governors) regard it as “merely another lifestyle.”

JS

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Joseph Sobran

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WHAT INTERESTS ME about Mr. Brudnoy’s plea for homosexual rights is that it is offered as a conservative argument. Its point of departure is a national review editorial, its author claims as his own the “conservative temperament,” and it scoffs at those conservatives who resort to “fundamentalist” appeals to Scripture or to “ritualistic” or “totemistic” appeals to “Western civilization.” Not that Mr. Brudnoy offers the least clue to the distinction between the scoundrelly and the legitimate appeals to Scripture and tradition, nor to why we should consider NR’s appeals to them as scoundrelly.

Let us be clear about what Mr. Brudnoy wants. He wants equality not just for homosexuals (who already have it, in that they are measured against the same standards as the rest of us), but for homosexuality itself. We are to stop regarding the sodomite as a second-class citizen—and what is more, we are to stop regarding sodomy as second-class sex. True, he says we (qua free individuals) needn’t practice, or like, or approve homosexuality. But we must (qua governors) regard it as “merely another lifestyle.”