Political Liberalism and LGBTQ+ Citizens

The key contention of this thesis is that freedom and equality have still not been secured for LGBTQ+ citizens in liberal societies. This thesis identifies several areas in which LGBTQ+ citizens still face injustice, in both the law and the family. It leverages the theoretical resources of political liberalism – a substantive normative ideal of freedom and equality – to diagnose those injustices and justify measures to secure the free and equal standing of LGBTQ+ citizens. Where those theoretical resources do not exist, this thesis develops them. The Introduction motivates the thesis’s focus on LGBTQ+ citizens in liberal societies and justifies the choice of political liberalism as the appropriate normative framework by which to analyse the injustice LGBTQ+ citizens in those societies still face. Chapters 1 and 2 critically examine the morality of denials of service to LGBTQ+ customers in the marketplace for same-sex wedding cakes. Chapter 3 identifies an expressive harm of conversion therapy and suggests a liberal approach for regulating conversion therapy on the basis of that harm. Chapter 4 develops a political liberal conception of self-respect. Chapter 5 uses that conception to argue for a duty on parents to refrain from expressing heterosexist beliefs to their children. The Afterword identifies that political liberalism, correctly understood, is not a formal doctrine of equality but a strongly expressive doctrine of equality. It also warns liberals that the future of LGBTQ+ rights is under threat amid rising homophobia and transphobia in liberal societies.