During the last 25 years, homosexuality has played an important role in public debates in Western societies. With globalization, the civil protection of gay rights is spreading rapidly outside the Northern hemisphere and many non-Christian religious traditions are taking public positions on the issues. Favoring a dialogue among various religious systems and an in-depth review of their positions, Pierre Hurteau offers readers new insights into how each of the traditions studied - Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Afro-American religions - articulates its own regulatory mechanisms of male sexuality in general, and homosexuality. Moving away from a Eurocentric view, this book reminds readers that sites of non-heterosexual identity are multiple.

The interest of this book lies at the very center of a recent deployment of homosexual liberation on a larger scale. The reader will be able to understand how each of the traditions studied articulates its own regulatory mechanisms of male sexuality in general, and homosexuality.