May 21, 2004  |  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 ...