First published at 365gay.com on June 17, 2011 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 […]
Anti-Marriage Advocates Have no Case Read More »
First published at Between the Lines News on May 26, 2011 By the time you read this, the Rhode Island House will have passed a civil-unions bill that no one seems to want. Many gay-rights advocates in the state, led by Marriage Equality Rhode Island, are opposing the civil-unions bill because it doesn’t go far
Civil Unions Better than Nothing Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on April 22, 2011 Gay-rights advocates often complain that our opponents are selective in their use of the Bible. Indeed they are. But so are our allies. I confronted this problem recently after a talk I gave in rural Pennsylvania, when fielding comments from two audience members from opposite sides of
What the Bible Doesn’t Say Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on March 18, 2011 Why does “love the sinner; hate the sin” ring so hollow in the gay-rights debate? One reason, as I’ve argued before [http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-why-%E2%80%9Clove-the-sinner%E2%80%9D-rings-hollow/], is that part of loving the “sinner” is making an effort to understand him—something our opponents seldom do. If they did make that effort, it
Are we Defined by our Sexuality? Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on March 4, 2011 Let me begin with a huge Thank You to readers who weighed in thoughtfully on last week’s column [http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-is-it-time-for-the-gay-moralist-to-retire/], which pondered the changing attitudes of audiences at my “Gay Moralist” lectures. Although I have a general policy of not chiming in on the comments thread—partly because of
Gay People Have Work to do Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on January 21, 2011 The recent Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy article “What is Marriage?” [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1722155], by Sherif Girgis, Robert George, and Ryan Anderson (hereafter GGA), has received considerable attention—as it should. (Jonathan Rauch’s incisive retort links to much of the discussion; see here: http://igfculturewatch.com/2011/01/12/let-them-eat-friendship-george-et-al/.) That’s because the article
What Marriage Isn’t Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on November 12, 2010 When I first acknowledged to myself at 19 that I was gay, there were two friends that I needed to tell right away. I told Scott first. We were fellow candidates with the Capuchin Franciscans, aspiring to be priests. (We continued to affectionately call each other “Brother”
Friendship, Gayness, and Death Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on October 29, 2010 I’ve been engaging in quite a bit of dialogue lately with conservative Christians. It usually involves their asking me a question along the following lines: “Look, we feel awful about the recent reports of gay teen suicides. We believe each of these kids is a child of
What do We do With Evangelicals Who ‘Want to Help’? Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on October 22, 2010 In my work as “the Gay Moralist,” I often pursue dialogue with opponents of LGBT equality. I do this for various reasons: to understand them better, to help them understand us better, to help bystanders understand the controversy better, to promote truth more generally, and ultimately to
Why “Love the Sinner” Rings Hollow Read More »
First published at 365gay.com on August 13, 2010 “The trouble with atheism,” my friend said with a smile, “is that you don’t get any holidays.” Sometimes even tired jokes can be insightful. The friend was a Catholic priest, speaking to me (an atheist) as I spent a week with him and several dozen other priests