John Corvino

Spring 2012 Speaking Calendar

jcorvino — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:37:02 +0000

My Spring 2012 speaking calendar thus far is posted here; check back regularly for updates. Also, my long awaited book Debating Same-Sex Marriage (with Maggie Gallagher will be published by Oxford University Press in June.

The Repentant Gingrich?

jcorvino — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:34:00 +0000

Gingrich is pushing a familiar double standard, and we should call him out on it.

My Tribute to Frank Kameny

jcorvino — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:54:37 +0000

My tribute to a leader and friend, at Pridesource/Between the Lines.

Column Archives

jcorvino — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:56:01 +0000

I’ve just learned that many of my columns from the now-defunct 365gay.com have been re-posted on the 1in25houston blog, here. My thanks to the blog adminstrator (a former student from my Texas days).

Columns gone…for now

jcorvino — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:00:08 +0000

So, the shutdown of 365gay.com on October 1 also meant the disappearance of all of my archived columns. At some point in the future I may try to find a way to collect my favorites and publish them in a book or post them online somewhere. You can still find some of them at pridesource.com, and others (pre-2009) archived at my old website here.

Fall 2011 Update

jcorvino — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:00:32 +0000

Good news: there has been progress on the marriage debate book with Maggie Gallagher, which should appear in Spring/Summer 2012. In order to finish that book by deadline, I’ve (regretfully) canceled my appearance at Skepticon this November, but check the Calendar page for other speaking engagements.

Thursday Watercooler: Gallagher stepping down as chair of NOM

365 Gay News » John Corvino — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:15:45 +0000

The machinery of death. Last night Georgia and Texas killed two men. White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer [1] was convicted for the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr. Brewer made no final statement before he was put to death in Huntsville, Texas. Troy Davis [2]' state sponsored death made more newspapers. The Georgia resident was convicted of the 1989 killing of police officer Mark MacPhail. There was no physical evidence connecting Davis to the crime. Seven of the nine who testified Davis was the culprit changed their stories. Unlike Brewer, Davis [3]made a final statement. "I am innocent. All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight." Neither man deserved to die. [4] A family does not want the death penalty. Deryl Dedmon Jr. [5] should be thanking the family of his alleged victim, James Craig Anderson [6]. Barbara Anderson Young, the victim's sister, is asking the district attorney not to ask for the death penalty. Dedmon is accused of running over Anderson with a pick-up truck. The culprit allegedly screamed "white power" during the crime. Anderson is survived by his partner, of 17 years, and their daughter. [7] Wife exchange. Ted Haggard [8] and Gary Busey will be switching wives in an upcoming episode of Wife Swap [9]. This is not a joke. In the technical sense. [10] Shawn Hollenbach. Comic Shawn Hollenbach [11] has a great video of his family, from his mom to cousins, describing how he acted when he was a little one. Hollenbach, who has a twin brother, was destined for gayhood. He loved to play with Barbie dolls, ran on his toes, had an affinity for flip flops, and wore Daisy Dukes. I'm cool with everything except the Daisy Dukes attire!! Really? Why wear anything associated with the dumbest character from an inane show? Answer that please. [12] Maggie is leaving. The National Orgnaization of Marriage [13] announced today that Maggie Gallagher is stepping down as chair. Her replacement? John Eastman, who NOM says is “a distinguished Constitutional law scholar.” “I will remain on the NOM board, and continue to work on specific projects for NOM, as well as taking on some additional outside projects I’ve long deferred, such as finishing my book Debating Same-Sex Marriage¸ which I’ve been working on for Oxford University Press with Prof. John Corvino,” Gallagher said in a statement. Love how our own John [14]gets a shout out! Thanks to the New Civil Rights Movement for the link. [15] Republican debate. Anyone watching the GOP presidential debate [16] tonight? Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson [17] will be participating. He thinks President Obama was too slow on DADT repeal. I wonder if he's going to say that tonight. Can't wait to see Santorum get weepy. [18] Criminal investigation in boy's suicide. Authorities are looking to see if there should be any charges in the death of Jamey Rodemeyer. [19] The youngster took his life this Sunday after years of alleged bullying. "We're going to look into whether he was the victim of any crimes leading up to his suicide," Police Chief John C. Askey said (as reported by the Buffalo News). [20] [1] http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2094322,00.html [2] http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/09/troy-davis-a-doubtful-juxtaposition.html [3] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/22/national/main20109976.shtml [4] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/noose-top.jpg [5] http://www.queerty.com/racist-murderer-accidentally-beat-up-and-ran-over-victim-with-his-truck-20110922/?utm_source=wordtwit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wordtwit [6] http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-20/justice/justice_mississippi-hate-crime-charge_1_white-teens-capital-murder-death-penalty?_s=PM:JUSTICE [7] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-judge-gavel-court-top.jpg [8] http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/gary-busey-ted-haggard-swap-spouses/story?id=14580497 [9] http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/wife-swap [10] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/haggardpoints-top.jpg [11] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De_j-PGdYDQ [12] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Shawn-Hollenbach-top.jpg [13] http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/maggie-gallagher-steps-down-as-national-organization-for-marriage-chair/politics/2011/09/22/27369 [14] http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-farewell-to-readers/ [15] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Maggie-Gallagher-top.jpg [16] http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/debate-preview-six-things-to-watch/ [17] http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20056124-503544.html [18] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-gay-republicans-top.jpg [19] http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/amherst/article565876.ece [20] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-police-line-top1.jpg

Corvino: No Slippery Slope (NYT “Room for Debate” Forum)

jcorvino — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:01:25 +0000

My first appearance at the New York Times website, here.

Corvino: Farewell to readers

365 Gay News » John Corvino — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:10:49 +0000

This column marks the end of my weekly contribution to 365gay.com. It’s been a good run, and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you and farewell. I’ve been a columnist since 2002, when I started contributing to Between the Lines, Michigan’s LGBT newspaper. Those contributions evolved into a bi-weekly column, which was occasionally picked up by other regional papers, as well as the online Independent Gay Forum. [1] In 2007 Jennifer “Jay” Vanasco—this site’s amazing editor-in-chief—invited me to bring the Gay Moralist column to 365gay.com. Soon thereafter I went from bi-weekly to weekly, a schedule I’ve since maintained with only a few breaks. Like any regular appointment, a weekly column has its advantages and drawbacks. On the plus side, I’ve built a steady readership, and the vigorous schedule has kept me on my toes. On the down side, it’s not easy to come up with a fresh, column-sized idea every week. I sometimes find myself re-plowing the same fields. Indeed, my columns tend to fall into four basic types. Here they are, with a link to a nice example of each: Column type #1 [2]: Our opponents are being stupid. But I’m a nice guy and I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. So here’s my best effort to make sense of the stupidity. Column type #2 [3]: Our opponents are still being stupid. But sometimes you just can’t fix stupid, so instead, let’s just ridicule them. Column type #3 [4]: Now we’re the ones being stupid, and it’s time for someone to hold up a mirror. Column type #4 [5]: Personal story suggesting broader lessons or themes. Incidentally, each of these linked columns first appeared at 365gay.com. The last one disappeared from the archives when the site went to its new format, but I include it especially because it was my inaugural column for the site, and it remains one of my all-time favorites. There’s nothing inherently wrong with re-plowing the same fields. I’d like to think that I’m a better writer than I was in 2002, and that I’ve picked up new readers along the way. But as I’ve changed, and as the site has changed, my weekly contributions have felt more forced. It seems like a good time to step back, enjoy some quiet time, and then explore other opportunities. In nine years as a columnist, my goal has always been to generate more light than heat on topics that usually do the reverse. I’ve tried to combine logical precision with sensitivity and humor. I’m sure I’ve often failed. I won’t be disappearing from LGBT advocacy altogether. I’m still working on a book, Debating Same-Sex Marriage, in which I argue against Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). That book is expected to appear next year from Oxford University Press, along with a solo book (yet to be titled) in which I make the moral case for gay equality. I will continue traversing the country to speak on these issues. My talk “What’s Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?” [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SutThIFi24w&feature=player_embedded] has mostly been replaced by a new program, “Haters, Sinners, and the Rest of Us,” where I draw on my two decades’ experience in the culture wars. And while I recently retired my marriage debate with Glenn Stanton—again, because of fatigue from re-plowing the same fields—I expect to be doing some debates with Gallagher and others. I still have faith in what the great utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill called “the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” I may also contribute articles to other venues—probably with less frequency but in longer formats. Check my website [6] if you’re curious about what I’m up to, or “friend” me on Facebook [7]. (I have a Twitter account, but I never use it.) And who knows—maybe I’ll even try my hand at a few “Ask the Expert” videos. Anyone need the advice of a moralist? Thanks to my editor, Jay Vanasco, for her unwavering support. You’re the best. Thanks to the rest of the staff, including the interns, who keep things running smoothly. Thanks to the friends and colleagues who have read my drafts and offered thoughtful criticisms: you’ve saved me from many embarrassing mistakes. Thanks to my partner, Mark—for his support, for his careful proofreading, and for too often putting up with “Not now, honey, I have to write a column.” I love you more than I’ll ever be able to put into words. Thanks most of all to my readers—my reason for being here in the first place. I may not know you, but I’ll miss you nonetheless. Take care. John Corvino is a philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Many of his recent columns are archived at his website [6], and some older ones are available here [9]. [1] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-john-corvino-top.jpg [2] http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-taking-on-the-new-argument-against-gay-marriage/ [3] http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-fighting-gay-dehumanization/ [4] http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-sex-and-distortion/ [5] http://igfculturewatch.com/2007/07/12/small-conversions-big-victories/ [6] http://johncorvino.com/wp/ [7] http://www.facebook.com/#!/johncorvino [8] http://johncorvino.com/wp/ [9] http://www.johncorvino.com/columns.html

Corvino: Anti-marriage advocates have no case

365 Gay News » John Corvino — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:22:10 +0000

New York may be on the brink of extending marriage to same-sex couples. As of this writing, the state’s marriage-equality bill appears to be one vote shy of passage. Several state legislators are still undecided. It’s a nail-biter. Which means that our enemies are out in full force, giving the usual non-arguments. I say “non-argument” deliberately. A striking fact about the public debate over marriage is that it has ceased to be much of a debate at all. [caption id="attachment_22108" align="aligncenter" width="352" caption="Photo courtesy of ontopmag.com"] [1][/caption] Consider the California Prop. 8 trial, where our opponents only called a single—and somewhat equivocal—witness. Or consider Minnesota’s legislative hearings on a ballot proposal to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage. In five hours of House testimony, not a single member other than the amendment’s author argued in favor of the measure. (It passed anyway, 70-62.) Even that author didn’t address the amendment’s merits: instead, he focused on the importance of letting voters decide. Pay attention: we have reached a point where our opponents have a really hard time publicly presenting arguments against us. This is a clear sign that they are losing. Our opponents see things differently, of course, claiming that their reluctance stems from the “unrelenting pressure”—as NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan puts it—to conform to the liberal homosexual agenda. But the real pressure on them isn’t political. It isn’t social. It’s logical. It’s the pressure that one feels in the face of truth. As evidence mounts that marriage equality is good for gays, for their families, and for society at large, our opponents have increasingly abandoned evidence. Instead they rest their case on bald assertion, claiming that marriage simply IS between a man and a woman, period, end of discussion. Like a child who sticks his fingers in his ears and sings “la la la,” they offer no real engagement. For a stunning example of this kind of non-argument, witness Archbishop Dolan’s embarrassing rant against the NY marriage-equality bill. [2] In it, he decries our tampering with a “definition as old as human reason,” compares marriage-equality advocates to communist dictators, and displays a willful blindness to history. (For example, he claims that marriage has always and everywhere been “one man, one woman, united in lifelong love and fidelity.” But the Archbishop’s bible—where multiple wives and concubines make frequent appearances—would beg to differ.) Yet the core of his rant is a definitional objection, which is really a non-argument: “[Marriage] is the union of a man and a woman in a loving, permanent, life-giving union to pro-create children. Please don’t vote to change that. If you do, you are claiming the power to change what is not into what is, simply because you say so. This is false, it is wrong, and it defies logic and common sense.” In other words, marriage is what *I* say it is. La la la! The definitional objection states that same-sex “marriages” can no more exist than married bachelors or square circles. They’re not just bad policy, they’re impossible by definition. Notice, though, that legislators and ordinary citizens don’t normally worry about things that are impossible by definition. After all, they’re impossible. So what’s the problem? Presumably, in the Archbishop’s mind, the problem is this: There is something distinctively valuable about heterosexual unions that would be threatened if legal marriage were extended beyond them. But Dolan offers absolutely no evidence for this dubious claim. Instead, he just keeps spinning circles about “this perilous presumption of the state to re-invent the very definition of an undeniable truth.” By analogy, suppose we were debating whether a particular object should be recognized as “art.” Following Dolan, one might assert that the nature of art is an “undeniable truth,” that we must resist the “stampede” to “redefine” it, and that we must fear government attempts to “dictate” what the “very definition” of art is. But such posturing would be mostly a distraction. When everyday people argue about whether an object is art, they’re generally not worried about what words mean. They’re worried about whether the work in question should be displayed in galleries and museums, supported by cultural grants, and so on. In a similar way, when people argue about whether marriage should be extended to same-sex couples, they’re generally not worried about what words mean. They’re worried about whether such couples should be afforded equal recognition, rights and responsibilities. In other words, it’s a moral and legal debate, not a semantic one. By repeating the definitional objection without offering any argument for an exclusively heterosexual notion of marriage, Dolan refuses to engage that debate. In doing so, he unwittingly exposes his side’s moral bankruptcy. Let’s hope that New York doesn’t fall for the ruse. John Corvino, Ph.D. is a writer, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. His column “The Gay Moralist” appears Fridays at 365gay.com. Read more at www.johncorvino.com [3]. [1] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-bishop-dolan-top.jpg [2] http://blog.archny.org/?p=1247 [3] http://www.365gay.comwww.johncorvino.com