Gay Rights and Feminism

Religious organizations led the charge for Proposition 8, but it’s not exactly clear why they were so invested. The Mormon Church, after all, was founded on polygamy and the Catholic Church, on the heels of its own sex scandals, is not exactly in a position to legislate morality. In an enlightening interview with Salon, gay Catholic author Richard Rodriguez offers a compelling feminist explanation. “The possibility that a whole new generation of American males is being raised by women without men is very challenging for the churches. I think they want to reassert some sort of male authority over the order of things. … In such a world, we need to identify the relationship between feminism and homosexuality. … What we represent as gays in America is an alternative to the traditional male-structured society. The possibility that we can form ourselves sexually--even form our sense of what a sex is--sets us apart from the traditional roles we were given by our fathers.”