Ryan Conrad

Rather too radical for my taste (surprising). During book club discussion, I found myself the most conservative person in the room as I expressed that the military isn't inherently evil, that it's fruitless and bad public policy to fight against an adult's ability to assign next-of-kin rights to someone of one's own generation rather than forcing all inheritance and decision making through generationally distinct blood relations, and that spellings like "Amerikkka" are amusing but rhetorically lazy and undermine the core message.

There is nevertheless some excellent food for thought here, even though at this point it's quite dated and almost worth analyzing as a historic artifact. It would pay dividends for anyone to read the book and tease apart the personal unhappiness from the idealist rants from the legitimate criticisms of our system (one of the most resonant for me was the criticism of rich gays opening their wallets for gay marriage, which tends to benefit already-privileged groups, while letting money dry up for LGBTQ initiatives in the rural towns where folks get bullied and beaten). I expect depending on where you are on life's journey, different subsets of this book will resonate deeply.… (mais)

Presents essential dissenting viewpoints on what is now an even bigger debate (if that was possible). Kenyon Farrow’s essay is particularly stand out in its analysis of the perceived divide between GLBTQ and African American communities. I have two dissenting points of my own: 1) if you frame your policy position with the language “against equality” you are not making it any easier on yourself; 2) perhaps a position against marriage is the minority one in both queer and hetero communities. If the latter is true, it could be argued Against Equality is even more essential.… (mais)