Judging Hagel’s Gay-Rights Record
It’s easy to understand why having Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense appeals to President Obama. The appointment of Hagel, a former Republican senator with war-hero stature who served in Vietnam but...
View ArticleAmerica’s Most Important Gay-Rights Speech?
No one anticipated it, but President Barack Obama used the occasion of his second Inaugural Address to give what was perhaps the most important gay-rights speech in American history. Inaugural...
View ArticleEd Koch and the Politics of the Closet
Ed Koch, whose brashness and authenticity about almost anything and everything came to define New York City in the seventies and eighties, would for the most part tell people who asked about his sexual...
View ArticleObama’s Next Choice on Gay Marriage
Ever since President Obama’s sweeping embrace of gay equality in his recent Inaugural Address, the question for legal observers has been whether his Justice Department will follow up with Supreme Court...
View ArticleKen Mehlman’s Gay-Marriage Mission
The news, on the front page of the Times this morning, that dozens of leading Republicans had signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case of Proposition 8, the California gay-marriage ban,...
View ArticleObama’s Brief Against Proposition 8 Goes Far
Thursday night, just hours before a filing deadline, President Obama’s Justice Department submitted an amicus curiae brief asking the Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8—California’s...
View ArticleWhy Bill Clinton Signed the Defense of Marriage Act
It is extremely rare for former Presidents to admit mistakes made in office, and rarer still for one to disavow a major piece of legislation. That’s partly why Bill Clinton’s op-ed in the Washington...
View ArticleIs There Hope for Francis on Gay Rights?
Pope Francis comes from one of only eleven countries where same-sex marriage is legal. In Argentina, where Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, as he was known until Wednesday, was the Archbishop of Buenos...
View ArticleRob Portman and His Brave, Gay Son
The news that Senator Rob Portman of Ohio has become a supporter of equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians because he himself has a gay son was a surprise. That’s because Portman is not only a...
View ArticleWhat’s Standing in the Way of Gay Marriage?
All of the issues have been fully briefed and next week the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the two same-sex marriage cases now at the center of a national debate. A case arguing that...
View ArticleWould the Justices Rather Not Rule on Prop 8?
The most important thing anyone needs to know about Tuesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban, is this: veteran Supreme Court...
View ArticleFor Edith Windsor, a Good Day in Court
The news on Wednesday out of the Supreme Court was at least slightly better for gay-rights advocates than it had been the day before. After the oral arguments in the case of New York resident Edith...
View ArticleGay Political Power—or Good Survival Skills?
Following Wednesday’s Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, there has been a lot of discussion of whether gays and lesbians individually, and the gay-rights...
View ArticleComing Out to My Father
Ever since I first knew I was gay, which for me was early on—as a teenager—I have been conflicted about talking about my father and our relationship. By the time I was in high school and felt the first...
View ArticleA Mixed Message for Gay Boy Scouts
Update: On Thursday, May 23rd, the Boy Scouts voted to allow openly gay boys to be accepted as Scouts. The ban on gay adults serving as scoutmasters remains in place. The headline, late last week,...
View ArticleMomentum and Gay Marriage, from Paris to SCOTUS
The French Parliament gave final approval to same-sex marriage on Tuesday, making France the fourteenth country in the world to have equal marriage rights nationwide. With a population of sixty-five...
View ArticleObama and Gay Marriage: One Year Later
Vice-President Joe Biden came first. A year ago today, on May 6, 2012, he made his surprise announcement on “Meet the Press” that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage, seemingly...
View ArticleThe Twelfth State: Minnesota Approves Marriage Equality
On Monday afternoon, Minnesota legislators gave their final approval to a marriage-equality bill, with a 37-30 vote in the State Senate. Once Governor Mark Dayton signs it, as he’s said he...
View ArticleThe Murder of a Gay Man in Greenwich Village
There aren’t supposed to be hate crimes in Greenwich Village these days, especially ones involving people with guns and victims who die. There aren’t supposed to be anti-gay hate crimes taking place...
View ArticleWhat Happened to Gay Marriage in Illinois?
Marriage-equality advocates had been hoping for another big win, just weeks before the Supreme Court is scheduled to announce its decisions in the two gay-rights cases argued earlier this year....
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