“Bake Me a Cake”: Three Paths for Balancing Liberty and Equality

At the CU-Boulder “What’s Wrong?” blog, I respond to religious conservatives who claim that anti-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation strip them of their liberty. From the essay: It’s worth emphasizing, however, that this concern is not unique to same-sex marriage. Oregon prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex,… Continue reading “Bake Me a Cake”: Three Paths for Balancing Liberty and Equality

John on Polygamy in NYT “Room for Debate”

In a New York Times “Room for Debate” discussion on plural marriage, John rebuts the slippery slope: Polygamy raises a number of public-policy concerns that same-sex marriage does not. That said, the gay-rights movement has bolstered the polygamist-rights movement in one key way: by insisting that finding a practice weird or icky or religiously anathema… Continue reading John on Polygamy in NYT “Room for Debate”

John in The Philosophers’ Magazine

In a recent issue of The Philosophers’ Magazine, John dismantles the “Definitional Objection” to same-sex marriage offered by Sherif Girgis, Robert P. George, and Ryan T. Anderson, among others. From the article: How did we end up in such a spot? Part of the problem is that ‘comprehensive union’ is a rather vague and slippery… Continue reading John in The Philosophers’ Magazine

The Race Analogy

The interracial marriage analogy is actually a collection of analogies, some of them stronger than others. One can, for example, analogize race to sexual orientation, as Craig does here. But one can also analogize it to sex or gender. Read the full column at HuffPost.

John at Family Scholars Blog

. At the Family Scholars blog, John participated in a forum on “Advice for the New Marriage Conversation,” David Blankenhorn’s initiative to move past the same-sex marriage debate to a common-ground effort strengthening marriage. From his post: Good conversations involve both talking and listening. The marriage conversation, especially when focused on “gay marriage,” has involved… Continue reading John at Family Scholars Blog

What’s Next for the Marriage Movement

Just posted a piece at The New Republic in response to our game-changing victories in the four states with marriage votes:

It is one thing for the state to allow you to marry, and quite another for your parents to show up at your wedding and be happy for you. Both are significant….

The election is over. The pro-equality forces won, and won big. But the fight for marriage is a long game.

Read the full piece at TNR.

D’Souza: The Real Problem

My take on the D’Souza affair:

Last week, the conservative luminary Dinesh D’Souza resigned as president of The King’s College, a New York City evangelical school, after it was revealed that he brought his mistress to a Christian conference, apparently shared a room with her, and introduced her as his fiancée — even though he was still married to his wife of 20 years.

Andy Mills, chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees told students, “God has a mighty future for Dinesh, but there are some things he has to go through first” — which is evangelical-speak for “WTF was he thinking?!?”

Read the rest over at HuffPo.