Law, Morality, and “Sexual Orientation”*

Abstract

During the past thirty years there has emerged in Europe a standard form of legal regulation of sexual conduct. The standard modern position is consistent with the view that it is unjust for A to impose any kind of disadvantage on B simply because A believes that B has sexual inclinations towards persons of the same sex. The standard modern position is part of a politico-legal order which systematically outlaws many forms of discrimination. The standard modern position involves a number of explicit or implicit judgments about the proper role of law and the compelling interests of political communities, and about the evil of homosexual conduct. Even the advocates of gay rights do not seriously assert that the state can never have any compelling interests in public morality or the moral formation of its young people or the moral environment.

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