Editing Andrew Sullivan (section)

==== 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>