 |
 |
|
|
| |  |
|
‘Same-Sex Marriage,
Pro and Con: A Reader’
Andrew Sullivan
Vintage Books, 2004
Paperback, 416 pages
$14 |
|
|  |
|  |
|
|
| |  |
HOME > ENTERTAINMENT > BOOKS
By: Kevin Riordan COMMENTS
AS ANDREW SULLIVAN began updating the 1997 book he edited about same-sex marriage,
he had no shortage of material from which to choose.
“Amazingly huge amounts happened last year and this year,” he
says, just before beginning a promotional tour for the new edition of “Same-Sex
Marriage, Pro and Con: A Reader.”
A collection of essays, media pieces and other texts related to the issue,
the book was released on May 17, the effective date of the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court’s landmark decision directing municipalities in the state
to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
“When I first started writing about [same-sex marriage] in 1989, there
wouldn’t have been enough for a book,” Sullivan said, from his
home in Washington, D.C.
The 2003 ruling in Massachusetts “accelerated everything and really
panicked the right wing,” he said. “The religious right is absolutely
apoplectic about this.”
THE 40-YEAR OLD writer, editor and blogger was raised Catholic in a small
town in Great Britain, later earning an undergraduate degree from Oxford, and
master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard.
A journalist since 1987, Sullivan was named editor of the New Republic magazine
in 1991 and quickly became famous as a gay conservative polemicist and pundit.
The well-received books “Virtually Normal” and “Love Undetectable” (Vintage)
expanded his reputation as an eloquent advocate for, among other things, same-sex
marriage.
Since leaving the top job at the New Republic, where he continues to serve
as a senior editor, Sullivan has been a regular contributor to a variety of
national publications. His blog recently drew a record-breaking 100,000-plus
visits in a single day.
Although a good part of that traffic is driven by Sullivan’s position
on Iraq (he strongly backed the removal of Saddam Hussein), his equally unequivocal
support for same-sex marriage also draws visitors to the site. If e-mails are
any indication, a good number of those folks are strongly opposed to the notion
of same-sex marriage.
“Here’s one issue where it comes down to the crunch,” Sullivan
says. “We’re saying this is an institution we’d like to participate
in … [but some opponents] regard gay people as fundamentally alien to
the human experience.”
Although the religion-based arguments haven’t changed, some secular
critics “have raised a bunch of objections that have to be taken seriously,” Sullivan
says. “It’s not like everyone who opposes us is hateful … there
is discomfort.”
THE DISCOMFORT IS evident on the part of Maggie Gallagher, whose lengthy essay, “What
Marriage is For” is among the conservative contributions to the new edition
of “Same-Sex Marriage.” Others represented from the right include
the New York Times columnists William Safire and David Brooks, UCLA professor
emeritus James Q. Wilson, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, and National
Review Online contributor Stanley Kurtz.
Except Brooks, all of the above oppose same-sex marriage, and right-wing voices
represent the bulk of the book’s new material. Sullivan said this is
because secular conservatives have had to play “catch-up” to the
case made earlier and more consistently by marriage equality advocates.
Those who fall in the “pro” column are well-represented in the
new edition, which features selections by Evan Wolfson, perhaps the nation’s
best-known activist on behalf of same-sex marriage; Harvard pastor Peter J.
Gomes; writers Doug Ireland and Henry Alford; and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.),
the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Sullivan includes the full
text of the surprisingly passionate speech Kerry — who, in his presidential
campaign, opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions — delivered
on the Senate floor in opposition to the federal “Defense of Marriage
Act” in 1996.
Sullivan also mentions in the book President Bush’s announcement of
support for a constitutional amendment strictly defining marriage as a male-female
arrangement. The book also features excerpts from the U.S. Supreme Court’s
Lawrence vs. Texas decision that struck down state sodomy laws and the 2003
Goodridge vs. Department of Public Health ruling from Massachusetts that led
to the legalization of same-sex marriage in that state.
IN FACT IF not in law, “there have been gay marriages as long as there
have been gay people,” Sullivan observes. He does acknowledge the word “marriage” is
a loaded one, but bona fide marriage “is the only thing worth going for,” he
adds. “You can’t shortchange equality. We would never have gotten
civil unions if we hadn’t asked for marriage. You don’t get half
a loaf by asking for half.”
Sullivan doesn’t believe same-sex marriage will be a major issue in
the presidential campaign, although he also believes it will be deployed “under
the radar” by the GOP. As for the ...
|