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16 Mich. J. Gender & L. 147 (2009-2010)
The Gay Agenda

handle is hein.journals/mjgl16 and id is 151 raw text is: THE GAY AGENDA £jbby u/Idler* I. INTRODUCTION * 147 II. FIGHTING A CULTURE WAR * 149 A. Anti-Gay Mainstays . 149 1. Judicial Decisions Invoking Institutional Competence . 150 2. Popular Discourse of Institutional Competence 157 3. Critique of the Institutional Competence Arguments . 159 B. The Terms ofPro-Gay Advocacy . 161 1. Normalization, Especially the Sex-Family Distinction . 161 2. Rights, Especially Equality . 172 III. RE-IMAGINING A LAW REFORM AGENDA * 197 A. Prime Example: Homeless Adolescents . 197 B. Other (Appropriated) Examples Collected and Thematized . 202 IV. CONCLUSION * 215 I. INTRODUCTION This Article is designed to illuminate options that I believe have been difficult for advocates of gay rights to imagine due to an incessant culture war and the hard work of anti-gay forces that have kept pro-gay advocates under persistent fire. The culture war, this paper argues, while a fundraising boon and a media draw, compels a particular type of par- ticipation and a particular reform agenda, eclipsing reform possibilities that might be preferable in the long run. From its side of the culture war, the anti-gay camp often speaks in the language of protecting traditional family values. This elicits at least two species of rejoinders from gay rights advocates. Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law. My thanks go to Anastasia Dubrovsky, Jeremy Fredericksen, Brittney Lacy and Rose MacKenzie for their re- search assistance. Thanks also to many colleagues who provided useful feedback, including Stacey Dogan, Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Taylor Flynn, Janet Halley, Wendy Parmet, Dean Spade, fellow participants in the series of workshops entitled Up Against Family Law Exceptionalism, sponsored by the Program on Law and Social Thought at Harvard Law School, and participants in the Faculty Colloquium at Northeastern University School of Law. 147

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