The New York Times | July 3, 2010 ELENA KAGAN uttered neither the word “gay” nor “marriage” in her opening statement at the Senate confirmation hearings on her nomination to the Supreme Court, but she addressed the issue nonetheless. No, she didn’t say how she will vote when gay marriage comes before the court, as…
South Texas Law Review | Winter 2009 | References omitted I AM flattered to lead off this discussion of whether gay marriage is a conservative idea, and even more than that, I am struck by how well-timed the discussion is. In a quarter century of practicing journalism, I have never seen a moment when the meaning…
National Journal | August 8, 2009 LAST October, Bill Meezan, my cousin, left his home in Columbus, Ohio, for a business trip to Philadelphia. Bill is the dean of Ohio State University’s College of Social Work, and he travels quite a bit. In Philadelphia, he thought he felt an old cold coming back. Then he…
By David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch From The New York Times | February 22, 2009 IN POLITICS, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road. The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now. We take very different positions…
The Wall Street Journal | June 21, 2008 By order of its state Supreme Court, California began legally marrying same-sex couples this week. The first to be wed in San Francisco were Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, pioneering gay-rights activists who have been a couple for more than 50 years. More ceremonies will follow, at…
Democracy Journal | Summer 2007 Review of The Future of Marriage, by David Blankenhorn (Encounter Books, 2007) WHEN I came out with a book making the case for same-sex marriage a few years ago, I expected to spend time selling gay marriage to straight people and marriage to gay people. The surprise was how much time I…
The New York Times | June 4, 2006 WE feared for our lives; we prayed for a remedy. What none of us in the gay world imagined, when word of a mysterious affliction surfaced 25 years ago, was what proved to be the epidemic’s most important moral legacy: AIDS transformed the gay-marriage movement from implausible…
The New Republic | May 30, 2005 IN 2003, when a bare majority of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered the state to recognize gay marriages, the three dissenting judges based their opposition largely on children. “It is difficult to imagine a State purpose more important and legitimate than ensuring, promoting, and supporting an optimal…
The Wall Street Journal | December 27, 2004 President Reagan, ever the optimist, loved a story about a boy who yelps with delight at a pile of dung, digging into it eagerly with both hands. “With all this manure,” says the boy, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!” Nearly two months after the…
The New York Times Magazine | March 7, 2004 IN ENDORSING the passage of a constitutional amendment that would restrict marriage to the union of men and women, President Bush established himself as the country’s most prominent advocate of same-sex marriage. To be more precise, he established himself as the most prominent advocate of the best…