Broadening the View : Imagining a Sexuality-Inclusive State of Nature

To varying degrees, the major figures of the social contract tradition, including Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, consider the sexual lives of the inhabitants of their respective states of nature and the impact of sexual unions on the formation of society. However, same-sex oriented individuals have traditionally been missing from the picture. In this paper, I broaden the sexual domain of the state of nature to include non-heterosexual inhabitants. The analysis gives rise to questions about the legitimacy of a social contract that denies and/or does not secure the rights of these individuals. Finally, I discuss the implications for current sexual orientation-centered policy debates