Against "'Respect Me!' Politics"

"The core of my contention is that we need to move away from airy, philosophical debates about the ontology of sex and gender and instead ground our advocacy in common values and clear moral narratives. After years of slogans like 'trans women are women' functioning as progressive shibboleths—so rarely explained, so rarely justified through persuasion—it's time to sideline them from our mass politics."

Cassie Pritchard at The Argument writes that "because I believe trans people are not generally respected as our transitioned sex that I believe we must shift to an argument for our rights and safety premised on moral narratives and values that sit apart from that question entirely."

"A Funny Thing Happened in the Wake of These Triumphs"

"But this huge increase in funding was no longer primarily about gay, lesbian and transgender civil rights, because almost all had already been won. It was instead about a new and radical gender revolution. Focused on ending what activists saw as the oppression of the sex binary, which some critical gender and queer theorists associated with 'white supremacy,' they aimed to dissolve natural distinctions between men and women in society, to replace biological sex with 'gender identity' in the law and culture, and to redefine homosexuality, in the process, not as a neutral fact of the human condition but as a liberating ideological 'queerness' meant to subvert and 'queer' language, culture and society in myriad different ways."

Ten years after the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Andrew Sullivan argues in The New York Times that "the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized, and Lost Its Way."

At The Advocate, Marcie Bianco reacts to Sullivan.

And in 2026, Sullivan adds "What The Dems Should Say On Trans Rights."

"The Growing Obsolescence of the Older Ideal of the Nuclear Family "

"Like the cultural innovations of the Sixties youth, the current trends away from family and fertility and toward gender fluidity are likely to endure in some form. They are rooted, for the most part, in underlying social and economic changes that politics and policy cannot easily reverse. They are not confined to the United States but common in other advanced capitalist countries."

John Judis at The Liberal Patriot describes the 1960s and 2010s as "two periods in modern American history where many of the young have adopted distinctive and effective political and cultural outlooks."

And Aria Bendix at NBC News explains "[w]hy abortions rose after Roe was overturned."

"Eternal Exposure Is the Price of Enlightenment"

"And then there's the ever-present question conveniently ignored by anti-free-speech academics: Who is on the committee that decides what new speech restrictions to impose and how to define them? Do we trust the same Republican state legislatures or local school boards that are already banning books and prohibiting the teaching of The 1619 Project and critical race theory? It's one thing to write law review articles and books urging new limitations on offensive and hateful speech. It's a far different matter to empower government authorities at federal, state, and local levels, with civil, criminal, and administrative enforcement powers, or college administrators (with or without faculty input) with the power to grant, deny, or revoke tenure, to decide what ideas can be spoken, written, or taught."

Stephen Rohde at the Los Angeles Review of Books reviews Robert Corn-Revere's The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder.

"Ultimately, Too Many Otherwise Persuadable Voters Have Become Convinced That Democrats Neither Understand Nor Reflect Their Values"

"In the most provocative segment of the entire book, Orwell also cites 'the horrible, the really disquieting prevalence of cranks wherever Socialists are gathered together. One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words "Socialism" and "Communism" draw toward them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, "Nature Cure" quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.' And he notes the prospectus for a summer Socialist school in which attendees are asked if they prefer a vegetarian diet."

Jeff Greenfield at Politico writes about "How Orwell Diagnosed Democrats' Culture War Problem Decades Ago."

And Ruy Teixeira at The Liberal Patriot offer to "Fix the Democratic Brand."

"Expressed Regret Over His 'Attraction to Controversy Rather Than Truth'"

"But Republican politics have moved against Sullivan. Still calling himself a conservative, he has not felt himself able to vote for a GOP presidential candidate since 2000. Meantime, Sullivan has become more rather than less distinctly British in his conservatism in the 30-plus years since he left Oxford for graduate school at Harvard, as American conservatism has hardened through the culture wars."

Jonathan Clarke at City Journal reviews Andrew Sullivan's Out on a Limb: Selected Writing, 1989–2021.

"The Cold War Was Perceived as a Kind of Moral Crusade"

"One man, Frank Kameny, was fired from his role in the Army Map Service in 1957 because of his sexuality. He decided to fight the decision, framing the discrimination against him as a civil rights issue rather than an alleged national security issue. By 1965, Kameny and other gay men and lesbians were picketing outside the White House and helping other fired employees with their court cases. And although in 1975 the Civil Service Commission announced new rules that meant gay people could no longer be barred or fired from federal employment because of their sexuality, discrimination continued in other agencies where employees had security clearance, like the NSA, where Shoemaker worked."

In a 2020 Time article, Suyin Haynes discusses the history of the Lavender Scare.

"Never Elevated Nature or Nurture to the Exclusion of the Other Factor"

"If the phrase 'almost unbelievably malleable' represents human nature as clay, in Mead's later formulation it was more like a bonsai tree, still able to be shaped but not just any which way. Mead knew the pain of having qualities of temperament associated strongly with the opposite sex. But she did not believe that her desire to be a wife and a mother arose only from cultural conditioning, nor did she find it uncongenial to appear or act feminine. That was who she was, how she wanted to present herself. She just wanted to have a vibrant career and room for sexual exploration, too."

Elesha J. Coffman at Aeon discusses Margaret Mead's views on sex and gender.

Generational Experience

At Spiked, Lisa McKenzie argues that "[t]he real divide is class, not 'generations,'" and Brendan O'Neill criticizes "[t]he tyranny of 'lived experience.'"

"When the Blues Was Mass-Market Party Music and Its Reigning Stars Were Women"

"Ironically, the records that the Blues Mafia dedicated themselves to rescuing from obscurity have become far more famous than the smash hits of the 1920s. Male country blues resonated with rock's singer-songwriters in a way that the classic blues never could. While a few women, notably Victoria Spivey and Edith Wilson, lived long enough to return to the stage during the 1960s blues revival, the likes of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones were far more interested in the hardbitten men of the Delta. 'It is surely no accident that so many of the early blues performers that revivalists scorned as inauthentic were women; to them, authenticity had a male voice,' writes Hamilton."

At the BBC, Dorian Lynskey discusses "[t]he forgotten story of America's first black superstars."

"The People Who Pushed Things Forward"

"That interwoven community included Brian Epstein (who brought the world the Beatles), Kit Lambert (who co-managed the Who), Simon Napier-Bell (the Yardbirds, and a young Marc Bolan), Robert Stigwood (Cream, the Bee Gees), Billy Gaff (Rod Stewart), Ken Pitt (David Bowie), Barry Krost (Cat Stevens), as well as Tony Stratton-Smith (who formed the visionary label Charisma for bands like Genesis). In fact, it was a gay man, Larry Parnes, who svengali-d Britain's very first rockers, from Tommy Steele to Billy Fury to Marty Wilde."

Jim Farber at The Guardian talks with Darryl W. Bullock about Bullock's new book, The Velvet Mafia: the Gay Men who Ran the Swinging Sixties.

"Applied Postmodernism"

"My view is that there is nothing wrong with exploring these ideas. They're almost interesting if you can get past the hideous prose. And I can say this because liberalism can include critical theory as one view of the world worth interrogating. But critical theory cannot include liberalism, because it views liberalism itself as a mode of white supremacy that acts against the imperative of social and racial justice. That's why liberalism is supple enough to sustain countless theories and ideas and arguments, and is always widening the field of debate; and why institutions under the sway of Social Justice necessarily must constrain avenues of thought and ideas. That's why liberalism is dedicated to allowing Ibram X. Kendi to speak and write, but Ibram X. Kendi would create an unelected tribunal to police anyone and any institution from perpetuating what he regards as white supremacy—which is any racial balance not exactly representative of the population as a whole."

Andrew Sullivan at The Weekly Dish argues that the "intellectual fight back against wokeness has now begun in earnest."

"The Answers to Those Questions Largely Remain Elusive"

"In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police officers descended on the Stonewall Inn to conduct what had become their typical, humiliating, and brutal raids on gay establishments. Patrons weren't having it. Several days of violent demonstrations followed.
"In popular culture, the Stonewall riots are widely viewed as pivotal. But there's also a mythic air to the protests. Folkloric tellings and retellings change with each passing year: Who spearheaded the charge against authority? Who threw that fateful first brick? Or was it a shot glass?"

Billy Binion at Reason discusses Marsha P. Johnson's role in the Stonewall Riots.

"The Making of a Writer and Self-Styled Political Prophet"

"While poverty is what inspired Beck and his common-law wife, Betty, to transmute his dark memories into a book, 'Pimp was also meant to be a contribution to the black revolution. Instead, it catapulted the pimp into American popular culture's pantheon of celluloid heroes and outlaws.'"

In a 2015 New Yorker article, Robin D.G. Kelley reviews Justin Gifford's Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim.

"Care Less About What Happens in the Bedroom Than in the Workplace"

"'What the Democrats in California and in New York need to realize is that it doesn't matter how many votes we get in California or New York,' Betras said before 'going out on a limb' and predicting that those strongholds would stay blue. 'But that doesn't get us to the promise land. What gets us there is fly-over country.'"

Philip Wegmann at Real Clear Politics warns Democratic candidates away from emphasizing "gender-identity pronouns."

And Froma Harrop argues that "Identity Politics Are a Dead End."

"Here's to the Dirtbags"

"Not only that, for Frost, identitarian divisions based on gender, race and sexuality are 'a distraction at best, an active detriment at worst'. 'The biggest divide in American society is class and that's it. I'm a class-first person', she tells me. 'You're hearing in the election how much we need to elect a woman or we need to elect a woman of colour. But the most left-wing candidate is an old, white, heterosexual man [Bernie Sanders] and I want him to win… I'm a Bernie bro. I was a Bernie bro in 2016 and I am now.'"

Fraser Myers at Spiked talks with Amber A'Lee Frost and Anna Khachiyan.

"Smith's Own Little Flea-Bitten Booby Trap"

"On February 8, 1964, as the House of Representatives debated passage of the bill, Howard Smith, an ardent segregationist from Virginia, rose to propose changes to four pages of Title VII, the section of the bill barring hiring and firing 'because of' race, creed, religion, or color. 'After the word religion, insert sex,' Smith drawled, urging his colleagues to rectify 'this grave injustice … particularly in an election year.'
"The result was two hours of pandemonium on the House floor."

Todd S. Purdum at The Atlantic depicts the odd history of the Civil Rights Act and sex discrimination.

"Is This the Future of Funny?"

"As if to clinch that point, just before Christmas, Russian-British comedian Konstantin Kisin pulled out of a gig for the Unicef on Campus society at London's School of Oriental and African Studies after refusing to sign a 'behavioural agreement form'. The form stated: 'By signing this contract, you are agreeing to our no-tolerance policy with regards to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia or anti-religion or anti-atheism.' Kisin told the Daily Mail: 'I grew up under the Soviet Union. When I saw this letter, basically telling me what I could and couldn't say, I thought this was precisely the kind of letter a comic would have been sent there.'"

At The Guardian, Stuart Jeffries asks, "Is standup comedy doomed?"

"And So Why Not Have a Conversation About How Socialist Policies Don't Only Impact Our Economy, but What About Our Personal Lives?"

"The rising tide should lift all boats, but it hasn't. Certainly, in the last 30 years, we can see all sorts of wage stagnation, we see growing inequality. The contemporary moment of capitalism that we're in has created a lot of risk for young people.
"They're in a very precarious situation because there's so little of a social safety net."

Paul Solman at the PBS NewsHour asks, "Could socialist policies give American women better lives?"

Yas, Kween

"Young, cis women seem to have been seduced by it the most. That alone is little surprise: That demographic is known for leading the charge on linguistic trends. Drag has a language of resilience and snark, even as it embraces its feminine side. It can be emphatic or emotional or guarded. It's giving you side-eye or props or a scoff.
"For those reasons, it's also boomed online. Internet culture loves conveying meaning in a pithy, interesting way and, as Leap puts it, 'drag language appeals to affect.' It's the same reason emojis have become popular: It carries a certain depth, it's evocative, and it's funny. In the age of the meme, drag lingo goes far."

Lexi Pandell at Wired calls RuPaul's Drag Race "Pop Culture's Dominant Slang Engine."