gay marriage

The absurd logic of hyper-individualism is upon us.

SCOTUS homes in on Colorado’s contempt for Jack Phillips, not the First Amendment and free expression.

The American bishop preaching at the royal wedding will bring pizzazz—and prove the church is modernizing.

“Birtherism”—the ugly term for the even uglier charge that Barack Obama was not born in the United States—always suffered from one fatal flaw: a birth announcement that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on August 13, 1961, declaring the arrival of young Barack.

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is currently engaged in a legal battle with the city’s Metro system. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has declined to run Christmas ads from the church. The ad design is fairly subtle in its suggestion of the Nativity—an outline of shepherds…

Two years ago, when the Supreme Court declared a constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, Justice Kennedy’s opinion for the court stressed that recognition of such of right would affect no one but the same-sex couples who marry. “Indeed,” Kennedy and his four colleagues stressed in…

October 31 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and the occasion brings to mind a joke: A young priest asks a wise older priest, "What's the difference between the Jesuit and Dominican orders?" The older priest says wearily, "Well, actually they have a lot in common. They were both…

Lakewood, Colorado

Have you ever heard of Marc Goodwin and Mikhail Gallatinov?

Ever on the lookout for irony, The Scrapbook's attention was drawn the other day to two stories—conven-iently situated next to one another—on the front page of the Washington Post Metro section. The first, entitled "D.C. readies for horde of inaugural protesters" (December 4), explained that…

Ever on the lookout for irony, The Scrapbook’s attention was drawn the other day to two stories—conven-iently situated next to one another—on the front page of the Washington Post Metro section. The first, entitled "D.C. readies for horde of inaugural protesters" (December 4), explained that…

Editor William Kristol's weekly Kristol Clear podcast, where he discusses Trump's "Carrier-nomics;' Is "Mad Dog" Mattis the top Trump pick so far?; and the HGTV Chip and Joanna Gaines "controversy" shows the Left still hasn't learned the lesson of 2016.

Chip and Joanna Gaines are at the height of their popularity. They host the well-liked remodeling show Fixer Upper on HGTV, have a bestselling book, and recently appeared on the cover of People. They are also devout Christians from Waco, Texas, so it was probably just a matter of time before the…

Chip and Joanna Gaines are at the height of their popularity. They host the well-liked remodeling show Fixer Upper on HGTV, have a bestselling book, and recently appeared on the cover of People. They are also devout Christians from Waco, Texas, so it was probably just a matter of time before the…

The college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, showed its true colors Tuesday. With Hillary Clinton set to roll into town the very next day, townies anxious to impress their preferred presidential candidate set aside Monday's Old Glory, replacing it on the town's street lamps with the rainbow…

In this election we have a candidate who has said some incredibly ignorant things that run counter to the long established principles of the party that he represents. Huge numbers of people that might otherwise be inclined to vote for him are baffled by the fact he's going out of his way to…

Donald Trump has reportedly picked Indiana governor Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate (though it's not quite official yet). On the surface, Pence comes off as a traditional conservative Republican, and his experience both in Congress and as a governor will round out Trump's relative…

In early December, Wired magazine published an interesting feature headlined “Mozilla Is Flailing When the Internet Needs It the Most." It seems that Mozilla, which makes the popular Internet browser Firefox, has seen its share of the market decrease "from 21.3 percent of browser usage in November…

In Ohio, the State Judicial Conduct Board has ruled that judges can't decline to marry only same-sex couples because of their personal religious beliefs. But the Judicial Conduct Board's ruling went much further than that:

We turn now to the suburbs of Philadelphia. Waldron Mercy Academy is a private school in Merion Station which takes children all the way from daycare at three months through eighth grade. It is not cheap—tuition for grades one through eight is $13,250 per year. Its campus sits nestled around an old…

Over at the blog Legal Insurrection, law professor William Jacobson reminds us of this answer Elena Kagan gave to Senator John Cornyn in her confirmation hearings to be Solicitor General in 2009:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Terry Eastland on the Obergefell v. Hodges decision rendered by the Supreme Court today.

June, for conservatives, has been of late the “cruelest month” at the Supreme Court, as the decisions finally roll forth. Many expect—with a combination of apprehension and resignation—that in the critical case of Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Anthony Kennedy will furnish the fifth vote for…

You may recall Brendan Eich. The cofounder and CEO of Mozilla was dismissed from his company in 2014 when it was discovered that, six years earlier, he had donated $1,000 to California’s Proposition 8 campaign. That ballot initiative, limiting marriage to one man and one woman, passed with a larger…

Had Jeremiah Wright’s antics not forced Barack Obama to expound famously on race in 2008, the most significant speech of his short Senate tenure would have been his 2006 remarks on religion and democracy. Appearing before Call to Renewal’s conference on “Building a Covenant for a New America,”…

On May 22, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through popular referendum, with 62 percent of the electorate supporting the constitutional change. The reported reactions, as you might expect, were overwhelmingly positive. Prime Minister Enda Kenny proclaimed,…

Over the last few years, the gay marriage movement has transformed from "equality for all" to "bake me a cake." As it picks up steam, the movement looks more and more totalitarian, both at home and abroad. Witness the latest news from the Great White North:

The most notable exchange during the argument last month in the same-sex marriage case before the Supreme Court, Obergefell v. Hodges, likely occurred between Justice Samuel Alito and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. 

Earlier this week, Harvard professor Robert Putnam did a Q&A with Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein, headlined "Have faith groups been too absent in the fight on poverty?" Here is Putnam's answer to that question:

As federal, state, and local governments continue to expand their laws and regulations regarding gender identity, conflicts over religious objections are sure to grow. Judging by an item on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, one flash point could well be foster parenting.

When arguing before the Supreme Court, a lawyer normally takes pains to convince the Justices that ruling in his or her favor in that particular case would not have dramatic consequences elsewhere. In Hobby Lobby, for example, Paul Clement urged that exempting his clients from part of HHS's…

When arguing before the Supreme Court, a lawyer normally takes pains to convince the Justices that ruling in his or her favor in that particular case would not have dramatic consequences elsewhere. In Hobby Lobby, for example, Paul Clement urged that exempting his clients from part of HHS's…

Over the weekend, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins appeared on CBS's Face the Nation. Here's one of the questions that outgoing host Bob Schieffer asked him:

Spokeswoman Karen Finney claimed today on MSNBC that Hillary Clinton did not flip-flop on the issue of same-sex marriage.

Hillary Clinton opposed same-sex marriage until 2013, but as late as 2014 she suggested that marriage laws still ought to be determined by the states. Talking Points Memo's Sahil Kapur reports today that Clinton, who graduated from law school 42 years ago, has somehow discovered in 2015 that the…

Let us now praise famous men, or at least one good federal judge, as some recent work of his demonstrates. Jeffrey Sutton is this judge, and he sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which includes the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Earlier this month he…

Today, in an article for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Apple CEO Tim Cook makes an announcement: "I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Terry Eastland on the Supreme Court's non-decision on gay marriage challenges, and the court's fall agenda.

NPR host Terry Gross pushed Hillary Clinton on her mixed record on same-sex marriage in a contentious exchange. Listen here:

"The state of Massachusetts doesn’t recognize three-way marriage​—​but .  .  .” (“Married lesbian ‘throuple’ expecting first child,” New York Post, April 23).

In a speech the other day to state attorneys general, the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, offered an ideal job description for himself and his state counterparts: “not merely to use our legal system to settle disputes and punish those who have done wrong, but to answer the kinds of fundamental…

A visitor to Richmond can’t leave without a trip to John Marshall’s house, a living shrine to the greatest chief justice in the history of the United States. Passing through the halls of his former home, it is as if the spirit of the great man is present in the articles he used and the rooms he…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the week that was in Washington.

Every discussion of gay marriage should begin with a recognition of its historical radicalness, its exceptionality. Heterosexual marriage has been the fundamental unit of human sociability for thousands of years, a common thread running through otherwise disjunctive cultures and wide-ranging ethnic…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on immigration reform, gun control, and a review of this week in Washington. 

Oral arguments on gay marriage take place before the Supreme Court the last week of March, and the pile of amicus briefs filed by interested parties long ago passed the point of redundancy. We prefer briefs filed by disinterested parties, such as the one put before the Court earlier in the month by…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the future of the GOP. Hosted by Michael Graham.

Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation debated CNN's Piers Morgan and his guest, Suze Orman, about same-sex marriage Tuesday night. Morgan concluded the debate by saying he found Anderson's position "a bit offensive." "It's not fair, it's not tolerant, it's not American," said the British-born…

Nelson Lund, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on California’s Proposition 8, which defines marriage as being between couples of the opposite sex. Today they’re hearing them on the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman at the federal level. Like Roe…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior editor Andrew Ferguson on the Supreme Court's consideration of same sex marriage and his editorial "The ‘Science’ of Same-Sex Marriage." Hosted by Michael Graham.

In the July 2 issue of this magazine, we argued that anyone wishing to understand President Obama’s reelection strategy should forget about the 2008 election and examine instead his successful drive to win congressional approval of Obamacare in 2009-2010. He and his team accomplished this by giving…

Charlotte

Last week, at the beach with my family, I deliberately ignored all newspapers. Not for the reason most people do—because print is dead. But because whenever I’m surrounded by salt -water, steamed crabs, and even mediocre fishing, I tend to hold that true happiness is having no idea what chronically…

Last week, reports emerged that Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy had condemned gay marriage. It's no secret that the company is run by devout Christians, but this still caused an uproar. Boston's mayor threatened to deny the company business permits, celebrities condemned the company, and the…

Google yesterday reportedly launched a worldwide gay rights campaign, officially beginning in Poland and Singapore.

Christopher Caldwell, writing in the Financial Times: 

So Batman is gay. Well, maybe.

The New York Times gushingly describes how President Obama’s unique background — he’s “a man from many worlds,” “a transcender of tribes,” and, yes, “a former constitutional law professor” — has allowed him to unearth a creative “middle way” on the question of redefining marriage.  That “middle…

In the early 1980s, Midge Decter famously explained to an acquaintance surprised by her unapologetic embrace of American conservatism, “There comes a time to join the side you’re on.” One could say that last week President Obama followed—as so many of us have!—in Midge’s footsteps. He joined the…

Since Obama’s flip flop on gay marriage earlier this month (he supported it in 1996, before opposing it for 8 years starting in 2004), there has been a lot of talk about whether he will lose support with African Americans in the fall. African American voters, after all, are both a core Democratic…

Last Friday, Gallup released a poll showing the country almost evenly divided on Obama's gay marriage endorsement, but 26% of Americans said Obama's move made them more likely to vote against him while 13% said it made them more likely to vote for him. By a 12-point margin, independents said they…

When President Obama came out last week in favor of redefining marriage, he couched his opinion in the context of federalism, saying, “I think it is a mistake to — try to make what has traditionally been a state issue into a national issue.” During that same interview, however, he declared that a…

Gallup took a poll of adults regarding Obama's endorsement of gay marriage, and the topline number seems* to look good for the president: 51% approve of Obama's support of same-sex marriage, while 45% disapprove. But when you take a look at how it might move votes, it seems to be a losing issue for…

Now that President Obama has announced that, having been for gay marriage (in 1996) before he was against it (in 2004 and 2008), he’s now for it again (in 2012), the Wall Street Journal editorial board comes perilously close to suggesting that Mitt Romney should change his position on the issue. …

Bloomberg reports that Biden went to Obama yesterday morning to apologize for painting him into a corner on gay marriage:

President Obama made what's being heralded as a big announcement on same sex marriage. "I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married," Obama told ABC News in an interview broadcast this morning.…

The president has already admitted Biden 'got out a little bit over his skis,' on the issue. But Politico reports that the White House is fuming that Biden's errant remarks in support of gay marriage forced the president's hand. Not only that, Biden's getting the credit for the president's change…

President Obama was never likely going to win in North Carolina without a big win nationally. Yet his campaign insisted on pretending so, going so far as to locate the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.  Now, on the heels of North Carolinians having handed a resounding victory to…

The debate over same sex “marriage” has engaged the heartfelt feelings and convictions of millions of Americans. Then there is Barack Obama.

John Wolfe Jr., Barack Obama’s Democratic challenger in the upcoming Arkansas and Texas primaries, said he is for civil unions for gay couples but refused to support gay marriage.

Capital New York quotes Jon Cooper, a gay Obama bundler, on the president's decision to renounce his opposition to gay marriage:

Here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD we are prostrate with admiration! President Obama's sudden reversal of opinion on gay marriage was, by any measure, an incredibly gutsy thing to do.

Rick Klein of ABC News reports:

The U.S. is divided on gay marriage, as on many issues. But the gulf of the cultural divide on this particular issue is striking.

Yesterday’s overwhelming approval of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions by the voters of North Carolina underlines the growing likelihood that the issue will be a major factor in the 2012 presidential election. Consider the following circumstances:

President Obama's position on same sex marriage might be "evolving," as he's admitted himself, but he wasn't always so unclear about where he stood. Consider this interview from 2004: 

White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked aboard Air Force One about President Obama's position on same sex marriage. He punted. Again. From today's pool report:

A final poll from PPP shows that a referendum supporting a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions in North Carolina is on its way to a comfortable win today. According to the poll, 55 percent of voters support the amendment, and 39 percent oppose it. Here's more from the…

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a pro-traditional marriage organization, alleges that confidential tax forms were either leaked or stolen from the IRS and illegally distributed by its opponents to the media. 

Tom Maguire: "Politico Sends In The Clowns"

Jonah Goldberg: "Most Boring Guy Wins Most Boring Debate?"

Manchester, N.H.

Mitt Romney had a strong performance Thursday night in the final debate before the January 3 Iowa caucuses. From Medicare reform to foreign policy to the economy, Romney provided mostly succinct answers within the mainstream of Republican ideas. And because he did not spend much time engaging his…

Peter Suderman: "CBO on the Stimulus: 'A net negative effect on the growth of GDP over 10 years.'"

During Herman Cain’s generally strong performance on Meet the Press on Sunday, David Gregory asked him, “Would you seek a constitutional ban for same sex marriage?” Cain replied, “I wouldn’t seek a constitutional ban for same sex marriage, but I am pro-traditional marriage.” Gregory followed up:…

New York Times: "As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe"

It's widely expected that the New York legislature will pass a bill instituting same-sex marriage this week, but Jimmy Vielkind reports that an agreement still hasn't been reached yet: 

David Brog: "Dana Milbank loses it"

The Democratic leadership in Maryland's House of Delegates announced Friday night that it didn't have the votes to pass a gay marriage bill. The Associated Press reports:  

Via Legal Insurrection, same-sex marriages will not be recognized by the state of California while Perry v. Schwarzennegger is appealed. Pending an expedited appeal, the 9th Circuit has granted to stay Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Liberal blogger Nate Silver takes a look at a new poll on gay marriage conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling:

When Judge Vaughn Walker struck down California's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the grounds that it violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, some argued that what really mattered in the decision were Walkers findings of fact--which supposedly prove there is no…

In 2000, 61 percent of California voters supported a ballot initiative that declared: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Then, in May of 2008, four of the seven state supreme court justices ruled that this ballot initiative violated the California state…