Category: Announcements

Today, October 11, is National Coming Out Day.

Not long ago I was asked, “What is the piece of writing of which you are most proud?” I answered that the work of which I am most proud is not a piece of writing: It’s a lecture, “What’s Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?”, which I first delivered in 1992 and then spent years honing and presenting all around the country. (It later was the basis for my 2013 book What’s Wrong with Homosexuality?.)

The 2007 version is available on YouTube, with subtitles in English, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, and Portuguese. I still get mail from around the world from people who find it helpful as they struggle with coming out.

In Commonweal, Robert K. Vischer (Dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law) offers a thoughtful, balanced, and highly favorable review of Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination, John’s new book with Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis. From the review:

Lobbing broad accusations across our religious-liberty battle lines takes very little effort and is a sure-fire way to draw an enthusiastic crowd of the like-minded. Corvino, Anderson, and Girgis are no strangers to these battles, but they have also taken the time to ensure that they are not strangers to each other. For a nation that seems more divided than ever, that’s a great place to start.

Read the full review here.

John has a busy fall travel schedule, including a recent debate at Notre Dame (see video here), and talks next week at Old Dominion University, Harvard Law School, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See the full calendar here.

The fun folks at Philosophy Bakes Bread interviewed John for a recent podcast: Cakes, Capes, and the Culture Wars. You can listen to the full hour-long interview here.

On August 17, John returned to BookPeople in Austin, Texas–which has graciously hosted events for every one of his books, including his 1997 anthology Same Sex–to talk about his new book Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination to a packed house.

On July 11, John spoke at Bay View, a Chautauqua in northern Michigan. As explained in this story from the Petosky News, his presentation was the inaugural lecture in a new series entitled “Bridges: Crossing Cultural Divides.”

Between the Lines, the Michigan LGBT paper where John got his start as a columnist in 2002, just published a nice profile of him reflecting back on his 25 years of advocacy. From the profile:

“For someone so young, John has been at it for a long time – making a patient, compelling, persuasive, clear case for the morality and common sense of gay and transgender inclusion, equality, and freedom,” said Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry.

“John’s hallmarks are putting rational arguments in emotional and easy-to-follow terms, mixing in effective metaphors and analogies as well as humor. He is always fair, almost to a fault, in stating the positions and assuming the good faith of opponents. And with regard to those opponents, he has shown a preternatural patience in engaging with some doozies for a very long time, representing us and doing us proud on the front lines of intellectual debate and persuasion.”

Read the full article here.

On June 15 John met with his counterpoint authors Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC to chat about their new book. Watch the video here:

John recently visited the Interamerican Court of Human Rights on May 17, 2017, to provide support to Central American LGBT rights activist and attorney Herman Duarte (holding John’s book in the photo). While in Costa Rica, John gave several talks, including two talks at ULACIT and one at the international law firm Dentons Muñoz.