Abstract
In The Tolerance Trap, Suzanna Danuta Walters tries to make sense of this contradictory moment in gay history. She walks a tightrope between acknowledging the enormous progress that gay people (her term) have made in the United States while simultaneously arguing that the battle is not over. Thus, Walters distinguishes herself from “queer critics” who fail to acknowledge that any meaningful changes have taken place in the lives of gay people (see Bernstein and Taylor 2013 for a summary of this literature). Walters argues that we only tolerate things that we ultimately think are wrong and thus cannot be changed or challenged. Integration need not mean assimilation, but instead maintaining “unique cultural styles in the quest for equal treatment” (14). Tolerance cannot celebrate difference.
In part one, Walters assesses how gay life has changed over the past several decades. She discusses the waning of the tragic coming out story in popular culture, replaced by “already gay” (37) characters. Already-gay characters shift the dramatic focus away from heterosexuals’ reactions to coming out and suggest that shame and self-hatred no longer motivate gay characters, allowing them to become more complex. However, already-gay characters also erase homophobia, and this “post-gay” “beyond-the-closet” fantasy depends on claims to sameness and being in “monogamous, long-term relationships” (67) and not engaging in “gender nonnormativity, expressive sexuality, and political engagement” (67). Walters acknowledges positive changes for gay youth such as Gay-Straight Alliances and the freedom of the Internet, but illustrates that while kids come out earlier, and some are never in, they “still get kicked out of the home, bullied, even murdered” (72).
In part two, Walters challenges the view that being gay is immutable. People who believe in the immutability of homosexuality are far more likely to support gay rights than those who don’t, and such arguments undermine the idea that being gay is contagious (to be transmitted from gay teachers to students and so on). Yet Walters debunks such arguments and illustrates how biological views of homosexuality reproduce gendered stereotypes and hierarchies and imply that homosexuality could be cured. She acknowledges that although most gay people experience their attractions as fixed, “it is a big leap from thinking that homosexuality is a deep part of one’s sense of self to asserting that particular sexual formations and desires are biologically predetermined” (118). Sexual behavior, desire, and identity can be linked in myriad ways. For Walters, what really matters is that if sexual identity were a choice, would God and others not love homosexuals?
In part three, Walters questions the idea that substantive legal equality will produce real inclusion and acceptance. These chapters provide a cogent and welcome analysis of legal change regarding gays in that, unlike most queer critics, Walters acknowledges both the potential and the limits of recent court cases extending gay rights. Walters criticizes the gay movement’s focus on same-sex marriage as the “cornerstone of gay inclusion” (153) for leaving out the poor, people of color, and promoting homonormativity and the idea that children of gay parents will only be legitimate when the state recognizes their parents’ relationship. Nonetheless, Walters acknowledges that, “as a civil rights issue, same-sex marriage is a no-brainer” (174). The real and important challenge that gay marriage presents would be to “disrupt the norms of heterosexual family life” and this would be the true benefit of gay marriage (205). Walters also presents an analysis of media images of gay families and children and the gay children of straight families.
In part four, Walters returns to the question of “what constitutes full citizenship for lesbians and gays” (240). She reviews the gains won and those yet to be achieved and makes the case for gay integration as opposed to merely tolerance. Capturing this contradictory moment, Walters states, “I am torn, like many people, I think, between a celebration of the real changes and despair over the persistence of anti-gay animus” (256). To fully embrace gay people and avoid the tolerance trap, we must acknowledge that “gay navigations of kinship and sexuality are not only pioneering models but have much to teach all of us, gay and straight alike” (265-266). While Walters is clear in her critique of the current LGBT movement, she does not provide us with alternatives.
Walters is one of the most humorous writers (not a trait sociologists are known for), making this a very accessible book and a great jumping off point for course discussion. It would be appropriate in both undergraduate and graduate courses on sexualities, social movements, gender, citizenship, culture, and social problems.