Content area
Full Text
Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America's Debate on Homosexuality Fred Fejes. New York: Palgrave, 2008.
Shortly after the publication of Fejes's book, beauty queen Carrie Prejean campaigned for "opposite marriage"- that is, for denying civil marriage rights to same-gender couples. In light of these events, Fejes's central claim- the claim that contemporary campaigns against gay rights echo the campaign of beauty queen Anita Bryant- feels eerily prescient.
Drawing from multiple sociologists, Fejes defines "moral panic" in part as a "[situation] of high generalized social anxiety where a condition, behavior, person or group . . . [becomes] the focal point of the anxiety" (19). According to Fejes, "[d]ecades of negative media portrayal [of lesbians and gays], buttressed by authoritative medical theories and laws [about...