Published by Routledge
Originally published in The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism
Libertarian views draw on diverse considerations including the value of individual liberty as well as concern about governments’ epistemic constraints and tendencies to produce negative unintended consequences. This chapter discusses how these libertarian commitments apply to policies, social norms, and personal ethics regarding sexuality, with the overall approach implying individual liberty regarding sexuality as much as, or even more than, libertarians favor individual liberty in other areas of life. The discussion centrally illustrates the libertarian approach to sexual ethics by considering libertarian arguments for decriminalizing homosexuality. The chapter also discusses marriage equality, sex-work, and sadomasochism. The concluding sections extend the discussion from matters of government policy, arguing that the commitments generating libertarian laws also tend to support a personal ethical practice of minding one’s own business.