Paula Deen and DOMA

My take on lessons from Paula Deen and DOMA, at HuffPost: Just as you don’t have to be throwing around the “n-word” to exhibit racism, you don’t have to be calling gays “faggots” in order to signal that they, and their love, and their families, are less worthy than others. Read the full column here.

Am I Gay, or LGBT?

The LGBT community is actually a collection of overlapping communities, each with distinctive experiences, needs, and challenges. While it makes sense to find common cause, it can also make sense to separate the various groups sometimes, in order to avoid obscuring our diversity. Read the full column at HuffPost.

Born This Way?

Why are some people so quick to latch on to bold claims about the biological origins of homosexuality? I think it’s because they believe that we need to show that we’re born gay in order to establish that our sexuality is a deep, important and relatively fixed part of who we are. But that’s simply… Continue reading Born This Way?

On Anal Sex

For me, being gay means that I like guys. It means that I like guys: I have crushes on them, I fall in love with them, I want to “get physical” with them. It doesn’t specify how I should do this. Read the full column at HuffPost.

A Plea for Philosophy

Of course argument is not always sufficient to do the job, and no one denies the powerful role that personal visibility plays in combating anti-gay stereotypes. But to acknowledge that people’s minds are changed mainly through knowing flesh-and-blood LGBT people is not to deny that argument has an important task as well. Read the full… Continue reading A Plea for Philosophy

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.

Bible Thumpers

It’s certainly true that many people claim that they find all they need to know within the Bible: God said it, I believe it, that settles it! There are at least two major problems with this approach. First, most people don’t know what the Bible actually says. And second, when one examines what it actually… Continue reading Bible Thumpers

Loving the Sinner, Hating the Sin

Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director of the gay Catholic group New Ways Ministry, called [Cardinal] Dolan’s remarks “nothing short of an Easter miracle.” Really? Rising from the dead is an Easter miracle. Marshmallow Peeps are an Easter miracle. (You can put them in your pantry for a decade, and they won’t decay. It’s true.) But a… Continue reading Loving the Sinner, Hating the Sin