Overview
A political war is raging in the United States between two groups once considered radical, even marginal, by most Americans: the religious right and the gay movement. Perfect Enemies reveals why this conflict has moved to the center of political debate and become a pivotal issue in elections at all levels. In Perfect Enemies, Chris Bull and John Gallagher trace the origins and growth of both groups from the seminal year of 1969, when the Stonewall Riots ushered in the modern gay rights movement and when Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell embarked on direct political action to bring strict biblical interpretation to bear on public policy. The skillful grassroots organizational efforts of both movements, based on a mutual demonization of each side by the other, resulted in growing political clout that developed under the radar of mainstream political commentators - and exploded upon the scene in a series of bitter and, to most Americans, bewildering political conflicts. From President Clinton's aborted pledge to lift the ban on gays and lesbians in the armed forces to the statewide antigay initiatives in Oregon, Colorado, and Maine, Bull and Gallagher offer the first comprehensive account of the rhetoric and strategies - often remarkably alike - of both sides, and of how the mutual passion of these perfect enemies is influencing electoral politics from the state houses to the White House.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
The religious right and the gay movement, this book contends, have a lot in common. Both are outsiders, considered fringe groups by the general population, and each brought the other to national attention in the political arena in the 1990s. Jerry Falwell is quoted as saying, "If homosexuals didn't exist, we'd have to invent them." Attacks on gays more than anything else, gay journalists Bull and Gallagher contend, have catapulted the religious right to the prominence it has enjoyed for much of this decade. A well-researched case for this is meticulously presented, but in arguing it, Bull and Gallagher have managed to write merely another gay attack on Christian conservatisma commonplace centrist condemnation of evangelism. The book does succeed, however, in giving a well-documented and contextualized account of the skirmishes between the religious right and gay rights, and for this alone, it is valuable. But in being aimed primarily at the gay market, this fails to be the breakthrough book it could have been. (Sept.)Library Journal
There is a war going on out thereor at least, as cooler heads might acknowledge, extreme friction, distrust, dirty tricks, and basic incivilityover civil rights for gays and lesbians. Bull and Gallagher, both senior reporters for the Advocate, lay it all out clearly. In a book that reads like a script from the PBS series Frontline, they detail all the recent big battles, from Stonewall to Hawaii. They cover how we got to this situation, who the major players are, the tactics they use, and the consequences. With Communists out of the picture, a fringe of the religious Right evidently needed a new meal ticket; gays and lesbians fit the bill. Mention that gays want quotas, or that they want to destroy the republic, and the coffers fill up with donations. But the authors show that spinning hatred exacts a price from everyone. "Even should one side emerge victorious, its integrity will have been so besmirched by its behavior that its triumph will be hollow. There's no honor in winning a culture war but losing the hearts and minds of a nation." A thoughtful treatment of a timely subject; recommended for all libraries.Lee Arnold, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, PhiladelphiaKirkus Reviews
Yes, Anita, there is an organized homosexual conspiracy to change the face of America. So say two reporters for the gay-rights magazine The Advocate.The origins of this "conspiracy," according to Bull and Gallagher, are bound up in the civil-rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and early '70s; through such now-famous instances as the Stonewall riot of 1969, the battle for gay rights became a part of the national political dialogue. At the same time, the authors write, another movement appeared, this one made up of "religious conservatives who believe they are taking a last stand against moral decline," former anticommunists who now see in gay rights a threat to family values and American virtues. Each side, Bull and Gallagher maintain, is fueled by, and even dependent on, the other, invoking their opposite number as a bogeyman to instill fear in their followers. The tactic of appealing to such fears, the authors write, has worked and has even proved to be quite lucrative—for television evangelists like Jerry Falwell and former celebrities like Anita Bryant, who gained visibility and influence in opposition to the gay Other, as well as for many gay-rights organizations. The coevolution has taken some strange turns, especially with the onset of the AIDS epidemic, with fundamentalist Christians arguing that they are discriminated against by the laws mandating the separation of church and state, and gays presenting themselves as victims of a new holocaust. As these two movements battle each other, Bull and Gallagher tell us, they are changing the course of national politics, enlisting the Democrats on the one hand and the Republicans on the other to press their arguments. The authors invite us to watch their analysis play out in the 1996 presidential race.
A fascinating and remarkably balanced study of one of the culture wars' most actively contested fronts.