Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement

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Across protests and courtrooms, LGBTQ+ advocates often argue that sexual and gender identities are innate. Oppositely, conservatives incite panic over “groomers” and a contagious “gender ideology” that corrupts susceptible youth. Yet, as this debate rages on, the history of what first compelled the hunt for homosexuality’s biological origin story may hold answers for the queer rights movement’s future.

Born This Way tells this story, bridging past fights against pathological accounts of queer desire and searches for a “gay gene” with ongoing scientific and political conversations about what it means to be a man or a woman, gay or straight, cis or trans. The book reveals how scientific and medical professionals came to bolster the fight for civil rights, how conservatives have fought back against equality and science alike, and what pitfalls biological narratives of identity present queer advocates today.