Lexington Books
Pages: 224
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7391-7705-1 • Hardback • March 2013 • $99.00 • (£76.00)
978-1-4985-1128-5 • Paperback • February 2015 • $57.99 • (£45.00)
978-0-7391-7706-8 • eBook • March 2013 • $55.00 • (£42.00)
Kelby Harrison has a Ph.D. in philosophical ethics, gender and sexuality from Northwestern University. From 2010 to 2012 she was the social ethics post-doctoral fellow at Union Theological Seminary. She is the co-editor of Passing/Out: Sexual Identity Veiled and Revealed, an intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and intersubjective anthology on issues of sexual identity closeting and revelation.
Introduction: Many Have Passed; Some Have Failed
Chapter 1: Passing in Abstraction: The Theoretical Organization of Passing
Chapter 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Oppressed: Ethical Considerations
Chapter 3: Thoughtfully Produced Sexuality: Sexology and The Queer Academy
Chapter 4: Those Shoes Look Pretty Gay, Or at Least Bi-Curious: Style and Sexual Identity Passing
Chapter 5: Political Pervasity: Queer Sexuality and the Moral Majority
Chapter 6: Practicing to Preach: Gayness as a Practical Identity
Conclusion: Social and Legal Implications of Sexual Deceit
Bibliography
A useful study of the ever more complicated matters of passing, closeting, outing, and the like. As sex/gender issues evolve, these questions and the importance of how to approach them justly only increase. Specialized work that will evoke necessary discussion.
— Water Women's Alliance
Sexual Deceit: The Ethics of Passing shows an excellent understanding and command of the scholarship on the issues. This is particularly notable because the approaches of what I will call traditional philosophy and of queer theory are very different, and it can seem to readers as if they are speaking different languages. The author not only handles the different approaches/traditions well, but also combines their insights, key concepts, and important arguments in developing an ethical theory the author calls “Gayness as Practical Identity,” or just “Gayness.” And this serves as an ethical theory that can be applied to many issues in addition to passing. I think that this theory, which I will call a theory of gay ethics is an important contribution to ethics and LGBT studies.
— Mark Chekola, Minnesota State University Moorhead