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Political Liberalism and LGBTQ+ Citizens https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.123728 Cole, Samuel 0000000231997486 Chambers, Clare 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. University of Cambridge 2025-09-01 Thesis Doctoral Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) eng D. H. Mellor Studentship provided by Cambridge Trust and Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/393378 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/dacdea4c-f6f0-4999-9d10-7adee4a31d8a/download 487d75999e895f18662283b38a12f39e https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ec33c869-df41-4a4a-85b5-48a73a89a5bd/download 87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved political philosophy equality liberalism LGBTQ+ rights