Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry

Ruse, a Canadian philosopher and author of Taking Darwin Seriously, has produced a study that some will applaud for its level-headed sanity, while others will find it maddeningly noncommittal. He presents a tortuous argument that homosexuality, far from being ""unnatural,'' may have a sound biological basis rooted in Darwinian natural selection. Freud's theory that homosexual men had rejecting fathers is defended as testable, yet he faults clinical studies and their slipshod methods. Ruse testified for the ACLU in a case against creationism, and defends the right of homosexuals to be teachers and serve in the military. Though many gays have outspokenly rejected hormonal explanations of sexual orientation, the author argues that such theories are not necessarily wrong. Nor does he reject outright the view that homosexuality is an illnessit may be tied to emotional disturbance in certain people, he suggests, until they learn to feel comfortable with their sexual identity. (May)