Sexual orientation: A human right

Sexual orientation: A human right - Eric Heinze

Eric Heinze's book on sexual orientation and human rights is great. It includes extensive theoretical analysis of both sexual orientation and the concept of rights. It then exmines rights that are of particular relevance to sexual minorities - personhood, privacy, liberty, and equality. Other rights are dealt with more briefly, such as the right to free speech and expression, rights of association, employment rights and so on. The underpinning of the book is clearly liberal, rather than radical. Heinze is not arguing for any new rights associated with sexuality, he is seeking only entry into the existing set of rights accepted in international human rights law (what he calls "extant rights"). Because of Heinze's insistence on using only extant rights and on the principle of "strict egalitarianism" (ie formal equality), he argues that certain areas of discrimination that are of great importance to lesbians and gay men - in particular, discrimination in the area of family and relationship recognition - cannot be addressed under a human rights paradigm. This, in my view is the central weakness in Heinze's work. He adopts such a narrow view of equality that he excludes some of the most important areas of life form the scope of rights protection - yet he does so unneccessarily. Even if one accepts that equality is the appropriate framework for viewing lesbian and gay rights, it is not difficult to make an argument that discrimnation in the area of family law violates the right to equality that lesbians and gay men ought to enjoy. And I also challenge Heinze's over-reliance on the right to equality; while equality is obviously useful and important, it is not the only right that offers us some room ot fight to justice and fairness in society.