Richard D. Mohr is professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois-Urbana. He is the author of "The Platonic Cosmology"; "Gays/Justice: A Study of Ethics, Society, and Law"; "Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies"; "A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights"; and "Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick," A public intellectual, he has also written for "The Nation," "The Advocate," the "Chronicle of Higher Education," the "Boston Globe," and the "Chicago Tribune,"