Editing Andrew Sullivan (section)

==Politics==
Sullivan describes himself as a [[conservative]] and is the author of ''The Conservative Soul''. He has supported a number of traditional [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarian]] positions, favouring [[limited government]] and opposing [[Social engineering (political science)|social interventionist]] measures such as [[affirmative action]].<ref name=lecture /> But on many controversial public issues, including same-sex marriage, [[social security]], [[progressive tax]]ation, [[anti-discrimination law]]s, the [[Affordable Care Act]], the U.S. government's [[Torture and the United States|use of torture]], and [[capital punishment]], he has taken positions not typically shared by [[conservatives in the United States]].<ref name=lecture>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/SjE49UnJiwE Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130727181350/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjE49UnJiwE&feature=plcp Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|title="Conservatism And Its Discontents" T. H. White Lecture with Andrew Sullivan|website = [[YouTube]]| date=28 November 2011 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjE49UnJiwE|access-date=30 June 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 2012, Sullivan said, "the catastrophe of the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|Bush–Cheney]] years ... all but exploded the logic of neoconservatism and its domestic partner-in-crime, [[supply-side economics]]."<ref name="Yglesias Award Nominee">[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2012/07/06/ygl-6/ "Yglesias Award Nominee"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610215312/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2012/07/06/ygl-6/ |date=10 June 2015 }} ''The Dish'' 6 July 2012</ref>

[[File:Michael Oakeshott.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Michael Oakeshott]] was a major intellectual influence on Sullivan.]]

One of the most important intellectual and political influences on Sullivan is [[Michael Oakeshott]].<ref name="The Daily Beast"/> Sullivan describes Oakeshott's thought as "an anti-ideology, a nonprogramme, a way of looking at the world whose most perfect expression might be called inactivism."<ref name=intelligent/> He argues "that Oakeshott requires us to systematically discard programmes and ideologies and view each new situation ''[[sui generis]]''. Change should only ever be incremental and evolutionary. Oakeshott viewed society as resembling language: it is learned gradually and without us really realising it, and it evolves unconsciously, and for ever."<ref name=intelligent/> In 1984, he wrote that Oakeshott offered "a conservatism which ends by affirming a radical liberalism."<ref name=intelligent/> This "anti-ideology" is perhaps the source of accusations that Sullivan "flip-flops" or changes his opinions to suit the whims of the moment. He has written, "A true conservative—who is, above all, an anti-ideologue—will often be attacked for alleged inconsistency, for changing positions, for promising change but not a radical break with the past, for pursuing two objectives—like liberty and authority, or change and continuity—that seem to all ideologues as completely contradictory."<ref>{{cite web|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/11/13/the-necessary-contradictions-of-a-conservative/|title=The Necessary Contradictions of a Conservative|publisher=The Daily Dish|access-date=13 November 2013|date=13 November 2013|archive-date=13 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113193641/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/11/13/the-necessary-contradictions-of-a-conservative/|url-status=live}}</ref>

As a youth, Sullivan was a fervent supporter of [[Margaret Thatcher]] and [[Ronald Reagan]]. He says of that time, "What really made me a right-winger was seeing the left use the state to impose egalitarianism—on my school",<ref name=intelligent/> after the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government in Britain tried to merge his admissions-selective school with the local [[comprehensive school]]. At Oxford, he became friends with prominent conservatives [[William Hague]] and [[Niall Ferguson]] and became involved with [[Conservative party (UK)|Conservative Party]] politics.<ref name=intelligent/>

From 1980 through 2000, Sullivan supported [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] presidential candidates in the U.S.,<ref name=intelligent/> with the exception of the 1992 election, when he supported [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Davidson|first1=Telly|title=Culture War: How the '90s Made Us Who We Are Today (Whether We Like It or Not)|date=14 July 2016|publisher=McFarland|page=42 |isbn=9781476666198|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRLaDAAAQBAJ&q=andrew+sullivan+supported+clinton+1992&pg=PA42|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref> In 2004, he was angered by [[George W. Bush]]'s support of the [[Federal Marriage Amendment]] designed to enshrine in the Constitution marriage as a union between a man and a woman, as well as what he saw as the Bush administration's incompetent management of the Iraq War,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Andrew|title=Why I Am Supporting John Kerry|url=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1257816/posts|website=Free Republic|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref> and supported [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee [[John Kerry]].

Sullivan endorsed Senator [[Barack Obama]] for the Democratic nomination in the [[2008 US Presidential Election|2008 United States presidential election]], and Representative [[Ron Paul]] for the Republican nomination. After [[John McCain]] clinched the Republican primary and named [[Sarah Palin]] as his running mate, Sullivan began to espouse a [[birther movement|birther]]-like conspiracy theory involving Palin and her young son Trig.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sarah Palin slams Newsweek for giving 'conspiracy kook writer' Andrew Sullivan cover story|url=https://www.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/sarah-palin-slams-newsweek-giving-conspiracy-kook-writer-175811299.html|access-date=2020-10-03|website=[[Yahoo!]]|language=en-US|archive-date=3 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205014/https://www.yahooinc.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> Sullivan devoted a significant amount of space in ''The Atlantic'' to questioning whether Palin is Trig's biological mother. He and others who held this belief, dubbed "Trig Truthers", demanded Palin produce a birth certificate or other piece of medical evidence to prove Trig is indeed Palin's biological son.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Justin|last=Elliott|date=April 26, 2011|title=Trig Trutherism: A response to Andrew Sullivan|url=https://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/sarah_palin_trig_sullivan/|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=[[Salon.com|Salon]]|language=en|archive-date=27 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027163629/https://www.salon.com/2011/04/26/sarah_palin_trig_sullivan/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Sullivan eventually endorsed Obama for president, largely because he believed Obama would restore "the rule of law and Constitutional balance"; he also argued that Obama represented a more realistic prospect for "bringing America back to fiscal reason" and expressed hope that Obama could "get us past the culture war."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/barack-obama-fo.html |title=The Daily Dish &#124; By Andrew Sullivan (3 November 2008) – Barack Obama For President |publisher=Andrew Sullivan |access-date=9 March 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090305042620/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/barack-obama-fo.html |archive-date=5 March 2009}}</ref> Sullivan continued to maintain that Obama was the best choice for president from a conservative point of view. During the [[2012 United States presidential election|2012 election campaign]], he wrote, "Against a radical right, reckless, populist insurgency, Obama is the conservative option, dealing with emergent problems with pragmatic calm and modest innovation. He seeks as a good Oakeshottian would to reform the country's policies in order to regain the country's past virtues. What could possibly be more conservative than that?"<ref>{{cite web|first=Andrew |last=Sullivan |title=America's Tory President  |url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2012/08/24/americas-tory-president/ |work=The Daily Dish |date=24 August 2012 |access-date=31 October 2013}}</ref>
Sullivan has declared support for [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sullivanarchives.theatlantic.com/index.php.dish_inc-archives.2003_10_01_dish_archive.html |title=Saturday, 11 October 2003 |website=Sullivan Chronicles|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130101303/http://sullivanarchives.theatlantic.com/index.php.dish_inc-archives.2003_10_01_dish_archive.html |archive-date=30 January 2012 }}</ref> and other like-minded Republicans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/ron-paul-for-th.html |title=The Daily Dish &#124; By Andrew Sullivan |publisher=Andrew Sullivan |access-date=9 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090305105226/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/ron-paul-for-th.html| archive-date= 5 March 2009}}</ref><ref>[http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/ron-paul-for-the-gop-nomination.html "Ron Paul For The GOP Nomination"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219214218/http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/ron-paul-for-the-gop-nomination.html |date=19 December 2011 }} 14 December 2011, ''The Daily Beast''</ref> He argues that the Republican Party, and much of the conservative movement in the U.S., has largely abandoned its earlier scepticism and moderation in favour of a more [[Fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] certainty, both in religious and political terms.<ref>{{cite news|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|title=The Christianist Takeover|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2011/08/14/the-christianist-takeover/|access-date=27 October 2013|newspaper=The Daily Dish|date=14 August 2011|archive-date=29 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029204541/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2011/08/14/the-christianist-takeover/|url-status=live}}</ref> He has said this is the primary source of his alienation from the modern Republican Party.<ref>{{cite news|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|title=The Tea Party As A Religion|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/10/16/the-tea-party-as-a-religion/|access-date=27 October 2013|newspaper=The Daily Dish|date=16 October 2013|archive-date=3 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205115/https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/10/16/the-tea-party-as-a-religion/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2009, ''[[Forbes]]'' ranked Sullivan 19th on a list of "The 25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media".<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Tunku |last1=Varadarajan |first2=Elisabeth |last2=Eaves |first3=Hana R. |last3=Alberts |date=22 January 2009 |title=The 25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media |journal=[[Forbes]] |url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal_slide_8.html |access-date=24 August 2017 |archive-date=2 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502061631/https://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal_slide_8.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Sullivan rejected the "[[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]]" label and set out his grounds in a published article in response.<ref name="ForbesLiberal">{{cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Andrew |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/01/forbes-definiti.html |title=Forbes' Definition Of "Liberal" |website=[[The Atlantic]] |date=24 January 2009 |access-date=11 August 2010 |archive-date=25 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425120838/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/01/forbes-definiti.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2018, after [[Sarah Jeong]], an editorial board member of ''[[The New York Times]]'', received widespread criticism for her old anti-white tweets, Sullivan accused her of being racist and calling white people "subhuman". He also accused Jeong of spreading eliminationism,<ref>{{cite web |first=Ezra |last=Klein |url=https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/8/8/17661368/sarah-jeong-twitter-new-york-times-andrew-sullivan |title=The problem with Twitter, as shown by the Sarah Jeong fracas |date=8 August 2018 |website=[[Vox.com|Vox]] |access-date=9 August 2018 |archive-date=9 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809113239/https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/8/8/17661368/sarah-jeong-twitter-new-york-times-andrew-sullivan |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.albawaba.com/loop/goblins-gooks-and-cancel-all-white-men-new-york-times-makes-controversial-hire-1169118 |title='Goblins,' 'Gooks' and 'Cancel All White Men.' The New York Times Makes a Controversial Hire. |date=5 August 2018 |website=[[Al Bawaba]] |access-date=9 August 2018 |archive-date=9 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809191843/https://www.albawaba.com/loop/goblins-gooks-and-cancel-all-white-men-new-york-times-makes-controversial-hire-1169118 |url-status=live }}</ref> the belief that political opponents are a societal cancer who should be separated, censored, or exterminated.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/sarah-jeong-new-york-times-anti-white-racism.html |title=When Racism Is Fit to Print |date=3 August 2018 |magazine=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |access-date=9 August 2018 |archive-date=3 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205013/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/sarah-jeong-new-york-times-anti-white-racism.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===LGBT issues===

==== HIV ====
In 1996, discussing [[HIV]], he argued in the ''[[New York Times Magazine]]'' that "this plague is over" insofar as "it no longer signifies death. It merely signifies illness."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sullivan |first=Andrew |date=November 10, 1996 |title=When Plagues End |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/10/magazine/when-plagues-end.html |access-date=2022-06-05 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=3 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205013/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/10/magazine/when-plagues-end.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This led to "a trend of white male journalists proclaiming that [[AIDS]] is over", according to Sarah Schulman.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schulman |first=Sarah |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1251803405 |title=Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993 |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-374-71995-1 |edition= |location=New York City |pages=xxii |language=en |oclc=1251803405 |access-date=5 June 2022 |archive-date=3 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205015/https://search.worldcat.org/title/1251803405 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Gay issues ====
Sullivan, like [[Marshall Kirk]], Hunter Madsen, and [[Bruce Bawer]], has been described by [[Urvashi Vaid]] as a proponent of "legitimation", seeing the objective of the [[LGBT social movements|gay rights movement]] as "mainstreaming gay and lesbian people" rather than "radical social change".<ref>{{cite book|first=Urvashi |last=Vaid |authorlink=Urvashi Vaid |title=Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] | location = New York City |date =1996 |isbn =978-1101972342 |page=37}}</ref> Sullivan wrote the first major article in the U.S. advocating for gay people to be given the right to marry,<ref name="intelligent" /> published in ''The New Republic'' in 1989.<ref name="groom">{{cite news|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|title=Here Comes the Groom|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/11/gay_marriage_votes_and_andrew_sullivan_his_landmark_1989_essay_making_a.html|access-date=24 October 2013|newspaper=Slate|date=9 November 2012|archive-date=25 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925191240/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/11/gay_marriage_votes_and_andrew_sullivan_his_landmark_1989_essay_making_a.html|url-status=live}}</ref> According to one columnist for ''[[1843 (magazine)|Intelligent Life]],'' many on "the gay left," aiming to alter social codes of sexuality for everyone, were chagrined at Sullivan's endorsement of the "assimilation" of gay people into "straight culture."<ref name="intelligent" /> In the wake of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] rulings on same-sex marriage in 2013 (''[[Hollingsworth v. Perry]]'' and ''[[United States v. Windsor]]''), ''[[The New York Times]]'' op-ed columnist [[Ross Douthat]] suggested that Sullivan might be the most influential political writer of his generation, writing: "No intellectual that I can think of, writing on a fraught and controversial topic, has seen their once-crankish, outlandish-seeming idea become the conventional wisdom so quickly, and be instantiated so rapidly in law and custom."<ref name="Douthat" />

As of 2007, Sullivan opposed [[hate crime]] laws, arguing that they undermine [[freedom of speech]] and [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/hate_crimes_and.html |title=The Daily Dish &#124; By Andrew Sullivan (3 May 2007) – Hate Crimes and Double Standards |publisher=Andrew Sullivan |access-date=9 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090308132915/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/hate_crimes_and.html| archive-date= 8 March 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref>

In 2014, Sullivan opposed calls to remove [[Brendan Eich]] as CEO of [[Mozilla]] for donating to the campaign for [[Proposition 8]], which made [[same-sex marriage]] illegal in California.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Hounding of a Heretic|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/03/the-hounding-of-brendan-eich/|work=The Dish|date=3 April 2014|access-date=22 August 2015|archive-date=7 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107083013/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/03/the-hounding-of-brendan-eich/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=10 April 2014|title=Andrew Sullivan Blows Colbert's Mind with Defense of Brendan Eich|url=http://www.mediaite.com/tv/andrew-sullivan-blows-colberts-mind-with-defense-of-brendan-eich/|publisher=mediaite.com|access-date=22 August 2015|archive-date=3 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170603140243/http://www.mediaite.com/tv/andrew-sullivan-blows-colberts-mind-with-defense-of-brendan-eich/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Andrew Sullivan sparks ire of gay community over defense of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich|url=http://www.techtimes.com/articles/5432/20140412/andrew-sullivan-sparks-ire-of-gay-community-over-defense-of-former-mozilla-ceo-brendan-eich.htm|work=Tech Times|date=12 April 2014|access-date=22 August 2015|archive-date=22 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822151034/http://www.techtimes.com/articles/5432/20140412/andrew-sullivan-sparks-ire-of-gay-community-over-defense-of-former-mozilla-ceo-brendan-eich.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2015, he claimed that "gay equality" had been achieved in the U.S. by the persuasive arguments of "old-fashioned liberalism" rather than the activism of "identity politics leftism."<ref>{{cite web|title=The Left's Intensifying War on Liberalism " The Dish|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/01/27/the-lefts-intensifying-war-on-liberalism/|work=The Dish|date=27 January 2015|access-date=22 August 2015|archive-date=15 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815180817/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/01/27/the-lefts-intensifying-war-on-liberalism/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Transgender issues ====
In 2007, Sullivan said he was "no big supporter" of the [[Employment Non-Discrimination Act]], arguing that it would "not make much of a difference." He said the "gay rights establishment" was making a tactical error by insisting on protections for [[gender identity]], as he believed it would be easier to pass the bill without [[transgender]] people.<ref>{{cite web|title=Andrew Sullivan Supports Barney Frank / Queerty|date=12 October 2007|url=http://www.queerty.com/andrew-sullivan-supports-barney-frank-20071012/|access-date=9 March 2009|website=[[Queerty]]|archive-date=15 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115102041/http://www.queerty.com/andrew-sullivan-supports-barney-frank-20071012/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a September 2019 ''[[Intelligencer (website)|Intelligencer]]'' column, Sullivan expressed concern that gender-nonconforming children (especially those who are likely one day to come out as gay) might be encouraged to believe that they are transgender when they are not.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|date=2019-09-20|title=Andrew Sullivan: When the Ideologues Come for the Kids|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/andrew-sullivan-when-the-ideologues-come-for-the-kids.html|access-date=2021-07-29|website=[[Intelligencer (website)|Intelligencer]]|language=en-us|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729201749/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/andrew-sullivan-when-the-ideologues-come-for-the-kids.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2019, Sullivan wrote another ''[[Intelligencer (website)|Intelligencer]]'' column on young women who, in their teens, had begun to transition to live as men but later [[detransition]]ed. In that article, he discussed the [[PLOS One#Rapid onset gender dysphoria controversy|controversy]] over a 2018 journal article by Lisa Littman that proposed a socially mediated subtype of gender dysphoria that Littman had termed "[[rapid onset gender dysphoria]]".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html|title=Andrew Sullivan: The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|date=2019-11-01|website=[[Intelligencer (website)|Intelligencer]]|language=en-us|access-date=2019-11-04|archive-date=3 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205014/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In April 2021, he said it should be illegal for doctors to initiate [[Transgender hormone therapy|cross-sex hormones]] for children under 16 or [[sex reassignment surgery]] for children under 18.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|date=9 April 2021|title=A Truce Proposal in the Trans Wars|url=https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/a-truce-proposal-in-the-trans-wars-c49|access-date=29 July 2021|website=[[Substack]]|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729201751/https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/a-truce-proposal-in-the-trans-wars-c49|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Recognitions ====
In 1996, Sullivan's book ''Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality'' won the Mencken Award for Best Book, presented by the Free Press Association.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Mencken Awards: 1982–1996|url=https://menckenawards.blogspot.com/2019/11/normal_13.html|access-date=17 November 2019|archive-date=16 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116052955/https://menckenawards.blogspot.com/2019/11/normal_13.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2006, Sullivan was named an [[LGBT History Month]] icon.<ref>{{cite web|date=20 August 2011|title=Andrew Sullivan|url=http://www.lgbthistorymonth.com/andrew-sullivan|access-date=15 January 2014|publisher=LGBTHistoryMonth.com|archive-date=9 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009190937/http://www.lgbthistorymonth.com/andrew-sullivan|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Foreign policy ===
====Iraq war, war on terror====
Sullivan supported the United States' [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] and was initially hawkish in the [[war on terror]], arguing that weakness would embolden terrorists. He was "one of the most militant"<ref name="intelligent" /> supporters of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism strategy immediately following the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001; in an essay for ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', he wrote, "The middle part of the country—the great [[red states and blue states|red zone]] that voted for Bush—is clearly ready for war. The decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead—and may well mount what amounts to a [[fifth column]]."<ref>{{cite web |last=Noah |first=Timothy |date=2 December 2002 |title=Gore, Sullivan, and "Fifth Column" |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2074734/ |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |access-date=22 June 2011 |archive-date=14 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814073313/http://www.slate.com/id/2074734/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Eric Alterman]] wrote in 2002 that Sullivan had "set himself up as a one-man [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]" running an "inquisition" to unmask "anti-war Democrats", "basing his argument less on the words these politicians speak than on the thoughts he knows them to be holding in secret".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Alterman |first=Eric |date=8 April 2002 |title=Sullivan's Travails |magazine=[[The Nation (magazine)|The Nation]] |url=http://www.thenation.com/issue/april-8-2002 |access-date=26 October 2013 |archive-date=3 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205120/https://www.thenation.com/issue/april-8-2002/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Later, Sullivan criticised the Bush administration for its prosecution of the war, especially regarding the numbers of troops, protection of munitions, and treatment of prisoners, including the use of torture against detainees in U.S. custody.<ref>{{cite web |title=Archives: Daily Dish |url=http://sullivanarchives.theatlantic.com/index.php.dish_inc-archives.2005_01_09_dish_archive.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191318/http://sullivanarchives.theatlantic.com/index.php.dish_inc-archives.2005_01_09_dish_archive.html |archive-date=29 October 2013 |access-date=1 August 2013 |work=The Atlantic}}</ref> He argued that [[enemy combatant]]s in the war on terror should not have been given status as [[prisoners of war]] because "terrorists are not soldiers",<ref>{{cite web |title=The View From Your Window |url=http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_07_03_dish_archive.html#112085651653164877 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050717230946/http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives%2F2005_07_03_dish_archive.html |archive-date=17 July 2005 |access-date=29 January 2013 |publisher=andrewsullivan.com}}</ref> but he believed that the U.S. government was required to abide by the [[rules of war]]—in particular, Article 3 of the [[Third Geneva Convention|Geneva Conventions]]—when dealing with such detainees.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Reality of War |url=http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/07/hamdan_myths_an.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106000231/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/ |archive-date=6 January 2009 |access-date=29 January 2013 |work=The Daily Dish}}</ref> In retrospect, Sullivan said that the [[Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse|torture and abuse of prisoners]] at the [[Abu Ghraib prison]] in Iraq had jolted him back to "sanity".<ref name="intelligent" /> Of his early support for the invasion of Iraq, he said, "I was terribly wrong. In the shock and trauma of 9/11, I forgot the principles of scepticism and doubt towards utopian schemes that I had learned."<ref name="intelligent" />

On the 27 October 2006 episode of ''[[Real Time with Bill Maher]]'', Sullivan described conservatives and Republicans who refused to admit they had been wrong to support the Iraq War as "cowards". On 26 February 2008, he wrote on his blog: "After 9/11, I was clearly blinded by fear of [[al Qaeda]] and deluded by the overwhelming military superiority of the US and the ease of democratic transitions in Eastern Europe into thinking we could simply fight our way to victory against Islamist terror. I wasn't alone. But I was surely wrong."<ref>{{cite web |date=26 February 2008 |title=McCain's National Greatness Conservatism |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/02/mccains-nationa.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305093346/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/02/mccains-nationa.html |archive-date=5 March 2009 |access-date=29 January 2013 |work=The Daily Dish |publisher=Andrew Sullivan}}</ref> His reversal on Iraq and increasing attacks on the Bush administration caused a severe backlash from many hawkish conservatives, who accused him of not being a "real" conservative.<ref name="intelligent" />

Sullivan authored an opinion piece, "Dear President Bush," that was featured as the cover article of the October 2009 edition of ''[[The Atlantic]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cleland |first=Elizabeth |date=1 October 2009 |title=Dear President Bush |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/bush-torture |access-date=4 December 2013 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |archive-date=30 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930204304/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/bush-torture |url-status=live }}</ref> In it, he called on Bush to take personal responsibility for the incidents and practices of torture that occurred during his administration as part of the war on terror.

====Israel====
Sullivan has said that he has "always been a [[Zionist]]",<ref>A. Sullivan, [http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/mr-netanyahu-expects.html Mr Netanyahu "Expects"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523131119/http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/mr-netanyahu-expects.html |date=23 May 2011 }}, 20 May 2011.</ref> but his views of Israel have become more critical over time. In February 2009, he wrote that he could no longer take the [[Neoconservatism|neoconservative]] position on Israel seriously.<ref>Andrew Sullivan,[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/a-false-premise.html "A False Premise"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129212936/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/a-false-premise.html |date=29 January 2011 }}, Sullivan's Daily Dish, 5 February 2009.</ref>

In January 2010, Sullivan blogged that he was "moving toward" the idea of "a direct American military imposition" of a [[two-state solution]] to the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict|Israeli-Palestinian conflict]], with [[NATO]] troops enforcing "the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel". He wrote, "I too am sick of the Israelis. [...] I'm sick of having a great power like the US being dictated to."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/sick-of-the-israelis-and-the-palestinians.html|title=Sick|date=6 January 2010|access-date=7 January 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100109011639/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/sick-of-the-israelis-and-the-palestinians.html| archive-date= 9 January 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> His post was criticised by Noah Pollak of ''[[Commentary Magazine|Commentary]]'', who called it "crazy", "heady stuff" based on "hubris".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2010/01/06/andrew-sullivan-its-time-to-invade-israel/|date=6 January 2010|access-date=7 January 2010|title=Andrew Sullivan: It's Time to Invade Israel|first=Noah|last=Pollak|publisher=[[Commentary Magazine|Commentary]]|archive-date=9 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609185403/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2010/01/06/andrew-sullivan-its-time-to-invade-israel/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In February 2010, [[Leon Wieseltier]] suggested in ''[[The New Republic]]'' that Sullivan, a former friend and colleague, had a "venomous hostility toward Israel and Jews" and was "either a bigot, or just moronically insensitive" toward the Jewish people.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Leon|last=Wieseltier|authorlink=Leon Wieseltier|url=http://www.tnr.com/article/something-much-darker|title=Something Much Darker. Andrew Sullivan has a serious problem|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|date=8 February 2010|access-date=12 February 2010|archive-date=12 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212101748/http://www.tnr.com/article/something-much-darker|url-status=live}}</ref> Sullivan rejected the accusation and was defended by some writers, while others at least partly supported Wieseltier.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/19-Pundits-on-the-Sullivan-Wieseltier-Debate-2500|title=19 Pundits on the Sullivan-Wieseltier Debate|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=11 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212230749/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/19-Pundits-on-the-Sullivan-Wieseltier-Debate-2500 |archive-date=12 February 2010 }}</ref>

In March 2019, Sullivan wrote in ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine that while he strongly supported the right of a Jewish state to exist, he felt that U.S. Representative [[Ilhan Omar]]'s [[Ilhan Omar#Remarks on AIPAC and American support for Israel|comments about the influence of the pro-Israel lobby]] were largely correct. He said, "it is simply a fact that the Israel lobby uses money, passion, and persuasion to warp this country's foreign policy in favor of another country—out of all proportion to what Israel can do for the US."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/how-should-we-talk-about-the-israel-lobbys-power.html|title=How Should We Talk About the Israel Lobby's Power?|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|date=March 8, 2019|website=[[Intelligencer (website)|Intelligencer]]|language=en|access-date=2019-03-08|archive-date=10 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190310074700/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/how-should-we-talk-about-the-israel-lobbys-power.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Iran====
Sullivan devoted a significant amount of blog space to the allegations of fraud and related protests after the [[2009 Iranian presidential election]]. Francis Wilkinson of ''[[The Week]]'' said that Sullivan's "coverage—and that journalism term takes on new meaning here—of the uprising in Iran was nothing short of extraordinary. 'Revolutionary' might be a better word."<ref>{{cite news |first=Francis |last=Wilkinson |url=http://www.theweek.com/article/index/98673/The_future_belongs_to_Andrew_Sullivan |title=The future belongs to Andrew Sullivan |newspaper=[[The Week]] |access-date=4 December 2013 |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207102646/http://theweek.com/article/index/98673/The_future_belongs_to_Andrew_Sullivan |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sullivan was inspired by the Iranian people's reactions to the election results and used his blog as a hub of information. Because of the media blackout in Iran, Iranian Twitter accounts were a major source of information. Sullivan frequently quoted and linked to [[Nico Pitney]] of ''[[The Huffington Post]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Andrew |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/is-iran-calming-down.html |title=Is Iran Calming Down? |website=[[The Atlantic]] |date=22 June 2009 |access-date=11 August 2010 |archive-date=2 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202111225/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/is-iran-calming-down.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Immigration ===
Writing for ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine, Sullivan expressed concern that high levels of immigration to the U.S. could drive "white anxiety" by making white Americans "increasingly troubled by the pace of change" since they were never asked whether they wanted such a demographic shift.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/andrew-sullivan-the-opportunity-of-white-anxiety.html |title=Andrew Sullivan: The Opportunity of White Anxiety |last=Sullivan |first=Andrew |date=2019-04-12 |website=Intelligencer |language=en |access-date=2019-04-15 |archive-date=15 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415190505/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/andrew-sullivan-the-opportunity-of-white-anxiety.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Sullivan has advocated for tighter [[immigration control]]s on asylum and overall lower levels of immigration. He has criticized Democrats for what he perceived as their unwillingness to implement such controls.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/democrats-cant-keep-dodging-immigration-as-a-real-issue.html |title=Democrats Can't Keep Dodging Immigration as a Real Issue |last=Sullivan |first=Andrew |date=2018-10-26 |website=Intelligencer |language=en |access-date=2019-04-15 |archive-date=15 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415143744/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/democrats-cant-keep-dodging-immigration-as-a-real-issue.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Race ===
As editor at ''[[The New Republic]]'', Sullivan published excerpts from the 1994 book ''[[The Bell Curve]]'', by [[Richard Herrnstein]] and [[Charles Murray (political scientist)|Charles Murray]]. The book, which contains a chapter about [[IQ]] in society and public policy, argues that there are innate differences in intelligence among [[Race (human categorization)|racial groups]].<ref name=":1" /> This view of an innate connection between [[race and intelligence]] is rejected by the majority of scientists.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jackson |first1=John P. |last2=Winston |first2=Andrew S. |title=The Mythical Taboo on Race and Intelligence |journal=Review of General Psychology |date=March 2021 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=3–26 |doi=10.1177/1089268020953622 |quote=[G]eneticists largely reject the conclusions of hereditarian psychology" (p. 5). "Hereditarians thus create an illusion of mainstream research while remaining a minor outlier in psychology (p. 7)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Kevin A. |title=No support for the hereditarian hypothesis of the Black–White achievement gap using polygenic scores and tests for divergent selection |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=June 2021 |volume=175 |issue=2 |pages=465–476 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.24216|pmid=33529393 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Birney |first1=Ewan |author-link=Ewan Birney |last2=Raff |first2=Jennifer |author-link2=Jennifer Raff |last3=Rutherford |first3=Adam |author-link3=Adam Rutherford |last4=Scally |first4=Aylwyn |date=24 October 2019 |title=Race, genetics and pseudoscience: an explainer |url=http://ewanbirney.com/2019/10/race-genetics-and-pseudoscience-an-explainer.html |website=Ewan's Blog: Bioinformatician at large |quote='Human biodiversity' proponents sometimes assert that alleged differences in the mean value of IQ when measured in different populations – such as the claim that IQ in some sub-Saharan African countries is measurably lower than in European countries – are caused by genetic variation, and thus are inherent. . . . Such tales, and the claims about the genetic basis for population differences, are not scientifically supported. In reality for most traits, including IQ, it is not only unclear that genetic variation explains differences between populations, it is also unlikely. |access-date=11 April 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403195952/http://ewanbirney.com/2019/10/race-genetics-and-pseudoscience-an-explainer.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Aaron |first1=Panofsky |author-link=Aaron Panofsky |last2=Dasgupta |first2=Kushan |date=28 September 2020 |title=How White nationalists mobilize genetics: From genetic ancestry and human biodiversity to counterscience and metapolitics |journal=American Journal of Biological Anthropology |volume=175 |issue=2 |pages=387–398 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.24150 |pmc=9909835 |pmid=32986847 |s2cid=222163480 |quote=[T]he claims that genetics defines racial groups and makes them different, that IQ and cultural differences among racial groups are caused by genes, and that racial inequalities within and between nations are the inevitable outcome of long evolutionary processes are neither new nor supported by science (either old or new).}}</ref><ref name=":03">{{cite journal |last1=Nisbett |first1=Richard E. |author-link1=Richard E. Nisbett |last2=Aronson |first2=Joshua |last3=Blair |first3=Clancy |last4=Dickens |first4=William |last5=Flynn |first5=James |author-link5=Jim Flynn (academic) |last6=Halpern |first6=Diane F. |author-link6=Diane F. Halpern |last7=Turkheimer |first7=Eric |date=2012 |title=Group differences in IQ are best understood as environmental in origin |url=http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles%20for%20Online%20CV/Nisbett%20(2012)%20Group.pdf |journal=American Psychologist |volume=67 |pages=503–504 |doi=10.1037/a0029772 |issn=0003-066X |pmid=22963427 |access-date=22 July 2013 |number=6 |archive-date=23 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123114230/http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles%20for%20Online%20CV/Nisbett%20(2012)%20Group.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a 2015 article in ''The New Republic'', "The New Republic's Legacy on Race", [[Jeet Heer]] called Sullivan's decision an example of the magazine's "myopia on racial issues".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Heer |first1=Jeet |title=The New Republic's Legacy on Race |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/120884/new-republics-legacy-race |magazine=The New Republic |date=29 January 2015 |access-date=13 August 2020 |archive-date=15 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815083029/https://newrepublic.com/article/120884/new-republics-legacy-race |url-status=live }}</ref> The importance of Sullivan to the popularization of ''The Bell Curve'' and [[Scientific racism|race science]] was noted by [[Matthew Yglesias]], who called Sullivan "the punditocracy's original champion of Murray's thinking on genetics".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Yglesias |first1=Matthew |title=The Bell Curve is about policy. And it's wrong. |url=https://www.vox.com/2018/4/10/17182692/bell-curve-charles-murray-policy-wrong |work=Vox |date=10 April 2018 |access-date=13 August 2020 |archive-date=22 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722041900/https://www.vox.com/2018/4/10/17182692/bell-curve-charles-murray-policy-wrong |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, Gavin Evans wrote in ''The Guardian'' that Sullivan "was one of the loudest cheerleaders for ''The Bell Curve'' in 1994" and that he "returned to the fray in 2011, using his popular blog, The Dish, to promote the view that population groups had different innate potentials when it came to intelligence."<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Evans |first=Gavin |date=2 March 2018 |title=The unwelcome revival of 'race science' |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/02/the-unwelcome-revival-of-race-science |access-date=11 April 2023 |archive-date=20 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220023319/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/02/the-unwelcome-revival-of-race-science |url-status=live }}</ref>