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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...

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America’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...

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Ed 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...

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Obama’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...

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Ken 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,...

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Obama’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...

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Why 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...

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Is 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...

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Rob 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...

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What’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...

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Would 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...

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For 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...

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Gay 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...

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Coming 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...

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A 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,...

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Momentum 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...

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Obama 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...

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The 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...

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The 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...

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What 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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