Sullivan, Andrew 1963-

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Sullivan, Andrew 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born August 20, 1963, in Godstone, Surrey, England. Education: Attended Magdalen College, Oxford; Harvard University, M.A., Ph.D. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. Office—New Republic, Ste. 600, 1220 19th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20036. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, journalist, public speaker, and social critic. New Republic magazine, Washington, DC, member of staff, 1986-91, editor, 1991-96, senior edi- tor, 1996—. Guest on television and radio programs, including Reliable Sources, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO, the Chris Matthews Show, NBC, Nightline, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, Hardball, Crossfire, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, and the Larry King Show. Speaker at universities throughout the United States.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Harkness fellowship, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, 1984; Government Department Prize for a dissertation in political science, Harvard University.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Jacob Weisberg) Bushisms, compiled by Jonathan Bines, Workman (New York, NY), 1992.

Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

(Editor, with Vint Lawrence and author of introduction) The New Republic Guide to the Candidates, 1996, illustrations by Vint Lawrence, BasicBooks (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor and author of introduction) Same-Sex Marriage, Pro and Con: A Reader, with research assistance by Joseph Landau, Vintage Books (New York, NY), 1997, revised edition, 2004.

Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 1998.

The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Advocate, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Daily Telegraph, Seven Days, New York Times Book Review, New York Times Magazine, Salon.com, and Esquire. Author of column, Time, 2002—; former author of monthly column, Esquire; former columnist, Sunday Times (London, England). Sullivan's works have been translated into six languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author, journalist, and editor Andrew Sullivan is a social critic and observer who often writes on issues related to conservative politics, sexual politics, and gay and lesbian issues. Sullivan is a prominent and pioneering blogger who has taken advantage of the immediacy of the World Wide Web and his Web log writings to refine his thinking, communicate with his readers, and disperse his essays and critical opinions to the widest possible audience. Sullivan can be strongly antagonistic to his critics and intellectual enemies. In the National Review, Justin Katz noted that many of Sullivan's attitudes and viewpoints appear contradictory. "He is unapologetically homosexual and has been, until recently, devoutly Catholic. His social sympathies are liberal, but he considers himself a conservative. He has written often for the New York Times, but he is a leading figure in a blogosphere that sees the Times as the establishment it opposes. Taken together, these qualities attract an interesting audience, and conservatives' criticism of Sullivan's opinions often begins with confessions of fandom or friendship," Katz wrote, concluding: "Andrew Sullivan seems, in short, to have an intellect in deep conflict with his emotions."

In his 1995 book, Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality, Sullivan analyzes public thought regarding homosexuality, basing his discussion on the premise that homosexuality is innate, rather than merely a chosen lifestyle. The book opens with the author's recollections of an emotional childhood spent in England where, he recalls, even as a toddler he had crushes on several male classmates. Sullivan then traces the events that led to his discovery in his early twenties of his homosexuality, stating that his first kiss with a man was "like being in a black-and-white movie that suddenly converted to color."

After his autobiographical introduction, Sullivan devotes a chapter each to his analysis of four different views of homosexuality, which he labels "prohibitionist," "liberationist," "conservative," and "liberal." The first of these views, the prohibitionist, uses the Bible to refute homosexuality. The liberationist believes, however, that homosexuality is a choice or preference, neither an innate human trait nor a sin. Conservatives, according to Sullivan, believe in guaranteed rights granting personal freedoms, but feel a certain moral standard must prevail in politics and society, a standard that often excludes homosexuals. Finally, Sullivan explains, the liberals view homosexuals as an oppressed minority group that must ardently fight for equal rights.

Sullivan takes exception to various aspects of each of the four views he examines. He embraces none of these arguments fully, but instead focuses his attention on two major concerns of homosexuals in the United States: the ability for openly gay people to serve in the military, and the legalization of same-sex marriages. When gay men and women are granted these basic rights, Sullivan postulates, then society will recognize and benefit from the many positive influences that homosexuals have to offer.

Regarding the service of homosexuals in the military, Sullivan chastises the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gays to serve in the armed forces, but only if they keep their sexuality a secret. Calling for the United States government to allow avowed homosexuals into service, Sullivan declares that military service is a basic right of citizenship that should be open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. Homosexual marriages, too, according to Sullivan, should be sanctioned by the government to provide homosexuals with the right to enter into the covenant of marriage and the security of family. Commenting on both the military service and marriage issues, Sullivan told Richard Coles in a New Statesman and Society interview: "I believe that the attitudes of those institutions—marriage and the military—toward homosexuals represent the heart and soul of society's hostility to homosexuality. If you change those institutions, it's a stake through the heart of homophobia…. Early on I thought to myself. What do we want? What do I want? Well, I want fundamental equality. And what are the two things from which we are fundamentally excluded? These two."

Sullivan closes Virtually Normal with his thoughts on the contributions that homosexuals can make to society. Although often childless, Sullivan points out, gay men and women can serve in "broader parental roles," as teachers, nurses and doctors, priests and nuns, or as adoptive parents. Because they are usually childless, Sullivan suggests, gay couples can work longer hours and have more time to devote to community service, thus contributing more than their heterosexual counterparts. Sullivan also opines that same-sex unions tend to be strengthened by friendship, and are frequently more stable than heterosexual marriages.

Virtually Normal received mixed reviews, although most critics agreed that Sullivan has made a valuable contribution with his book. Commonweal editor Margaret O'Brien Steinfels questioned Sullivan's comment that "there is more likely to be greater understanding of the need for extramarital outlets between two men than between a man and a woman; and, again, the lack of children gives gay couples greater freedom. Their failures entail fewer consequences for others." Steinfels responded: "But then, why call it marriage at all?" Nevertheless, Steinfels found merit in Sullivan's book: "The inconsistencies of these final chapters notwithstanding, Virtually Normal is a book to take seriously. It is most engaging at those moments when the agonistic stance of the debater shifts to reveal a man who like the rest of us is trying to understand ‘how we as a society deal with that small minority of us which is homosexual.’"

Richard Bernstein, writing in the New York Times, also indicated several weaknesses in Sullivan's discourse, but declared: "Whether one is persuaded by Mr. Sullivan or not, few people are likely to remain entirely unmoved by at least some of his arguments or to feel exactly the same about homosexuality after reading his book as they did before…. With so much noise on the fringes of this matter, a quiet, dignified explication like Mr. Sullivan's can only lead to good."

Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival contains three separate but interrelated essays on homosexuality, friendship, and the deep connections between the two. In "When Plagues End," Sullivan writes about the death of a close friend from AIDS. In "Virtually Abnormal," which Denise Lardner Carmody in America called a "balanced, persuasive essay," Sullivan explores Sigmund Freud's concepts and theories about sexual identity. He considers the emotionally charged question of whether homosexuality is "normal," and whether it emerges from one or the other pole of the constant conflict of nature versus nurture. He asserts that homosexuality is neither innate nor pathological. "His careful analysis shows that both camps undervalue the role of environmental influences—the former, through fear of labeling homosexuality abnormal; the latter, lest social hostility be seen as the primary cause of gay male psychopathology. Sullivan wants neither to hide the flaws of homosexuals nor to elevate their lifestyle above any other," Carmody stated. The third essay, "If Love Were All," considers the profound power and beauty of friendship and how friendship contrasts with romantic love. "The strength of Sullivan's argument is that it resets our moral compass. By focusing on friendship, he restores the humanity of love, the dignity of human love's manifold expressions," Carmody remarked. "Sullivan's reflections on normality, friendship, love, and religious faith are as applicable to heterosexual men and women as they are to homosexual men. The moral and ethical issues he considers narrow the supposed extensive divide between gay and straight, reflecting the universal concerns of all men, regardless of sexual orientation," observed Gerald R. Butters, Jr., in the Journal of Men's Studies. Sullivan's writing in the book consistently stands in favor of homosexuality, and "unlike the bleating bigots and the angry activists, Sullivan manages to convey the simple illogic of inequality, and probably wins more hearts and minds as a result," asserted Tim Teeman in the New Statesman. Sullivan's work "is a deliberating pleasure to read," commented Booklist reviewer Ray Olson.

In The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, Sullivan expresses his view of political conservatism and traces how it devolved from a rather strictly defined political philosophy to a weakened political concept burdened by religious fundamentalism. Sullivan espouses a type of conservatism that is not defined by any particular faith or religious denomination, one that could appeal as easily to a religious person as to one with no professed faith at all. He also examines his own Catholic faith in terms of his conservative politics, and considers ways that they can be integrated. Sullivan's book is an "impassioned defining of conservatism—and then a deft distancing of it from the presidency of George W. Bush," observed Nathan Carlile in Legal Times. His commentary is "interesting, elegantly expressed, and deeply thought through," noted a reviewer in the Economist, who called The Conservative Soul "peculiar and inconclusive," but also "intellectually challenging and thoroughly captivating." New York Times Book Review critic David Brooks commented that Sullivan's "book is important, not only because he is willing to re-examine his own views relentlessly, but also because this is a moment when conservatism is in tumult, with old alliances breaking down, new divisions widening into chasms."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, March 13, 1999, Denise Lardner Carmody, review of Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival, p. 33.

Atlantic Monthly, November, 2006, review of The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, p. 124.

Booklist, September 1, 1998, Ray Olson, review of Love Undetectable, p. 41.

Commonweal, September 22, 1995, Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, review of Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality, p. 24; March 12, 1999, Gilbert Meilaender, review of Love Undetectable, p. 25.

Economist, October 21, 2006, "Uncertain Which Way to Move; The Republicans," review of The Conservative Soul, p. 94.

First Thing: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, March, 1999, review of Love Undetectable, p. 60; October, 2006, Timothy Fuller, "Sullivan's Travels," review of The Conservative Soul, p. 48.

Journal of Men's Studies, spring, 1999, Gerald R. Butters, Jr., review of Love Undetectable, p. 433.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2006, review of The Conservative Soul, p. 774.

Lambda Book Report, November, 1998, Jim Marks, review of Love Undetectable, p. 25.

Legal Times, October 23, 2006, Nathan Carlile, review of The Conservative Soul.

Library Journal, October 15, 1998, Michael A. Lutes, review of Love Undetectable, p. 87.

National Review, December 31, 2004, Justin Katz, "One Man's Marriage Trap: The Ever Shifting, Deeply Conflicted Andrew Sullivan," p. 30; March 27, 2006, profile of Andrew Sullivan, p. 9.

New Statesman, November 6, 1998, Tim Teeman, review of Love Undetectable.

New Statesman and Society, October 13, 1995, Richard Coles, "Man of Reason," profile of Andrew Sullivan, p. 26.

New York Times, October 4, 1991, p. A18; September 6, 1995, Richard Bernstein, review of Virtually Normal, p. C15.

New York Times Book Review, October 22, 2006, David Brooks, "Where the Right Went Wrong," review of The Conservative Soul.

Publishers Weekly, August 24, 1998, review of Love Undetectable, p. 37; August 7, 2006, review of The Conservative Soul, p. 47.

Technology Wire, October 15, 2006, "Coverage of the Mark Foley Scandal," transcript of CNN Reliable Sources television interview with Andrew Sullivan.