Books, Arts & Manners

A Place at the Table: The Gay Individual in American Society, by Bruce Bawer (Poseidon, 268 pp., $21)

HERE, one is invited to believe, is a book that we have been waiting for. The author, who has written cultural criticism for conservative journals such as The New Criterion and The American Spectator, proposes a civil and reasonable discussion about the place of homosexuality and homosexuals in American life. His title is from President Clinton’s expressed hope for “an American home where everyone has a place at the table.” Mr. Bawer contends that inviting homosexuals to the table need not disrupt, and can greatly enhance, our life together. The public debate about homosexuality to date, he says, has been conducted mostly by “belligerent extremists” on all sides. It is time to get civilized about the subject.

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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A Place at the Table: The Gay Individual in American Society, by Bruce Bawer (Poseidon, 268 pp., $21)

HERE, one is invited to believe, is a book that we have been waiting for. The author, who has written cultural criticism for conservative journals such as The New Criterion and The American Spectator, proposes a civil and reasonable discussion about the place of homosexuality and homosexuals in American life. His title is from President Clinton’s expressed hope for “an American home where everyone has a place at the table.” Mr. Bawer contends that inviting homosexuals to the table need not disrupt, and can greatly enhance, our life together. The public debate about homosexuality to date, he says, has been conducted mostly by “belligerent extremists” on all sides. It is time to get civilized about the subject.