John’s column “The Gay Moralist” appeared bi-weekly in Michigan’s Between the Lines from 2002-2007, and then weekly at 365Gay.com from 2007-2011. His columns and op-eds have also appeared in other venues, including the Independent Gay Forum, The Advocate, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic and the New York Times. Most of these columns are archived here.
First published at 365gay.com on April 6, 2010 They don’t drive Subarus, wear comfortable shoes, or listen to folk music. But are the female pair-bonding albatross discussed in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine lesbians? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html?ref=magazine Despite its provocative title, the essay “Can Animals Be Gay?” is one of the more thoughtful and nuanced treatments […]
Can Animals be Gay? Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on March 26, 2010 Recent reports about students in Mississippi and Georgia seeking to bring same-sex dates to prom stirred memories of my own prom experience. The year was 1987. I was “straight” then—or so I convinced myself. I knew I had “gay feelings” (as I put it), I knew I
First published at 365gay.com on March 19, 2010 It is sometimes said, “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.” Which may be why the recent Colorado story about Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish School, which expelled two pre-schoolers because their parents are lesbians, saddens me. Although I’m now an atheist, I was raised Catholic and attended
How the Sacred Heart Decision Makes Sense Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on March 12, 2010 The border guard didn’t even look up when she asked the question: “Citizenship?” “U.S.” “And why are you in Canada?” I paused. She looked up. I was going to Canada to give a lecture, which would be easy enough to say. But then there would be the
Coming Out at the Border Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on March 5, 2010 This past week I had a new experience: debating Glenn Stanton, Focus on the Family employee and frequent opponent of mine, before an audience of people who mostly sided with him. This has happened perhaps only once before: at a marriage debate at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia,
The Village Atheist Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on February 26, 2010 Okay—so I promise that this is my last column for a while on the definition of marriage. Four out of five in a row is enough. http://www.365gay.com/archive/?id=15&logo=t But I’ve learned a lot from writing these, especially because of comments from various marriage-equality opponents. Three points stick out.
What’s Love Got to Do With It? Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on February 19, 2010 An opponent writes, “What’s YOUR definition of marriage? If you’re going to use a word, you need a definition of the word.” I doubt that. After all, most English speakers can competently use the word “yellow,” but ask them to define the term (without merely pointing to
First published at 365gay.com on February 12, 2010 Since my recent column [http://www.365gay.com/news/corvino-the-right-is-wrong-about-gay-marriage/] discussing the “definitional argument” against marriage equality, I’ve learned something unsurprising: There is no single, standard “definitional argument.” There are, rather, various definitional arguments, and part of the problem is pinning down which one our opponents intend. In the hope of advancing
How to Define Gay Marriage Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on February 5, 2010 Brian Brown throws around the term “irrational” quite a bit. Brown is the Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an anti-gay-marriage organization (Maggie Gallagher is its president). I first came across his name last summer when the Washington Post profiled him, describing him as
Why Conservatives Should Want Gay Parents to Marry Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on January 29, 2010 Opponents of marriage equality have recently been shifting somewhat away from the “bad for children” argument in favor of what we might call the “definitional” argument: same-sex “marriage” is not really marriage, and thus legalizing it would amount to a kind of lie or counterfeit. As National
The Right is Wrong About Gay Marriage Read More »