APA Newsletters

Spring 2001
Volume 00, Number 2

Newsletter on Philosophy and Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Issues

From the Editor

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Tim Murphy

Once upon a time, the late John Pugh invited me to lunch while he was visiting Chicago. I had no idea that almost ten years later, I would just be finishing up the work begun at that lunch. It was John, you see, who set in motion the original founding of the Society for Lesbian and Gay Philosophy, which in turn initiated the impetus for establishing this APA group. Out of some kind of overdeveloped sense of altruism and overweening pride in grammar basics, I volunteered to edit the newsletter first for the Society and then the APA committee. My term as editor has now come to an end. Moments like this might tempt some retiring editors to reach for reminiscences worthy enough to be spoken on high from Mount Olympus. Not me. I find it hard to wax nostalgic let alone oratorical about having to beat the bushes for contributions to the newsletter (Note to my successor: one way to succeed is to arrange for double the contributions you actually need; half the volunteers will drop out, bleating lamentations and apologies like fattened academic lambs).

I can say that I have liked working with the various folks who have contributed to the newsletter. What is good, I think, about APA newsletters is that they offer a venue for sounding off in ways that don't have to conform to Rigorous Academic Standards. I see these newsletters as a venue for essays and meditations where footnotes and endnotes would only get in the way. Mix some essays with book reviews and a syllabus once in a while, and I think you've got something people actually read. With apologies to Italo Calvino I think that's better than a newsletter that people make a mental note of, intend to read but never do, judge worthy of reading if certain facts fell into place, recognize that they should read but realize that they never will, or pretend to have read. As you've probably already concluded, I like my newsletters newsy and informal. There are plenty of other places to go for The Drama of Serious Philosophy.

Cheers.

Conference Notes

The Committee put together a number of programs at the three 2000 - 2001 APA meetings. These are indicated below.

Eastern 2000 - New York

"Author Greets Critics: Edward Stein's Mismeasure of Desire." Commentators were Martha Nussbau, D.A. Richards, and Ian Hacking.

Pacific 2001 - San Francisco

"Anniversary Symposium: On Being Black, Gay, Latino/a, Female, Asian, etc., in Philosophy before the Era of 'Diversity'" This session was co-sponsored by the APA Committees on the Status of American Indians; Asian and Asian-American Philosophers; Blacks; Hispanics; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People; and Women in Philosophy. Linda Martin Alcoff chaired, and scheduled speakers were:
Linda Martin Alcoff (Syracuse University)
Jorge Gracia (SUNY Buffalo)
Gary Mar (SUNY Stony Brook)
David Hull (Northwestern University)
Howard McGary (Rutgers University)
Stephanie Lewis (independent scholar). .
"Symposium: Pedagogies of 'Persuasion': Sexualities and Professional Identities." This session was co-sponsored with the Society for Lesbian and Gay Philosophy." Pamela Hall of Emory University chaired, and scheduled speakers were:
Shannon Winnubst (Southwestern University) - "To Come Out or Not to Come Out?
Sexuality and Race in the Classroom"
Richard D. Mohr (University of Illinois, Urbana) - "Corrupting the Young: Successes,
Failures, and Unresolved Problems in Teaching Sexuality"
Deborah Achtenberg (University of Nevada, Reno and SPECTRUM of Northern Nevada)
"Rhetorics of Activism"

Central 2001 - Minneapolis

"Program 1: The Supreme Court Decision on Gay Boy Scouts." Lisa Heldke (Gustavus Adolphus College) will moderate. Scheduled speakers are Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern University Law School), John Corvino (Wayne State University), and Anne Phibbs (Metro State University).

"Program 2: Recent Legislation on Domestic Partnerships." Peg O'Connor (Gustavus Adolphus College) will moderate. Scheduled speakers are Mary Beth Mader (University of Memphis), Doris Rita Alfonso (SUNY Stony Brook), Mary Bloodsworth (Washington State University), and Richard Nunan (College of Charleston).

Also of interest is the program sponsored by the Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love." That program includes a presentation by Ludger Viefhues (Harvard University). The title of his talk is "Insights from the Straight-Jacket: Epistemological Concerns Expressed by Religiously Motivated Anti-queer Sentiments." A circulated description of the talk follows here.

"In a society where 95% of evangelical fundamentalists and 72% of mainline Protestants believe (with great political impact) "that homosexual sex is always wrong," philosophizing about love, sex, and gender demands the labor of understanding. Which concerns are expressed by the rejection of gays and lesbians? As a gay philosopher of religion, I wish to understand these concerns within the context of philosophy. Using tools of cultural anthropology I first outline the meaning attached to queer desires for contemporary Christians. I show how queers represent a challenge to gender as a fundamental system of establishing an ordered reality. Since gendering is a key feature in our (religious and nonreligious) attempts to create epistemic order, the performance of gender instability in turn destabilizes our attempts to create epistemic order. In short: gender trouble leads to epistemic trouble. I further align the epistemic concerns of the Christian conservatives with what H. Putnam calls the "myth of the ready-made world." I claim finally that to address the concerns of religious conservatives philosophy has to think her way through the Scylla of metaphysical realism and the Charybdis of relativism.

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APA Newsletters

Spring 2001 Volume 00, Number 2

Spring 2001
Volume 00, Number 2