A Radical Liberal Approach to LGBTQ Emancipation

Progress towards freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) people can largely be attributed to experimentation and entrepreneurship within markets and civil society. Liberal institutions of property, contract, consent, and free association enable this experimentation. However, some LGBTQ scholars and activists critique liberalism, arguing that rhetoric of legal rights and equality masks exploitation, oppression, and imperialism. They argue that liberal approaches to LGBTQ rights prioritize what formal legal rules say over realities on the ground. They are not entirely wrong. Formal rules can be written in a way that appears general, while simultaneously enabling state violence, cronyism, and restrictions on opportunity. These tend to harm the most vulnerable in society. Emancipation therefore requires more than a mere focus on what formal rules say. However, I argue that mainline economics offers the best explanation of the pervasive institutional dysfunctions that LGBTQ critics of liberalism wish to resist. Mainline economics also shows that attempting to address these issues by abolishing or restricting private property rights will cause serious dysfunctions. Therefore, I argue that the solution to the concerns of LGBTQ critics of liberalism is radical liberalism. Radical liberalism preserves and expands the freedom to experiment that has enabled substantial emancipation already. It also offers a way to overcome systemic issues that harm the most marginalized.

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