Andrew Sullivan

Sullivan was born in South Godstone, Surrey, England, into a Catholic family of Irish descent,{{cite magazine

|last=Raban

|first=Jonathan

|title=Cracks in the House of Rove: The Conservative Soul by Andrew Sullivan

|magazine=New York Review of Books

|date=12 April 2007

|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20050

|access-date=28 July 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080708230944/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20050| archive-date= 8 July 2008 | url-status= live}} and was brought up in the nearby town of East Grinstead, West Sussex. He was educated at a Catholic primary school and at Reigate Grammar School,{{cite web

|title=Notable Past Pupils

|publisher=The Old Reigatian Association, Foundation and Alumni Office, Reigate Grammar School

|url=http://www.reigategrammar.org/ora2/npp.htm

|access-date=28 July 2008

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624162447/http://www.reigategrammar.org/ora2/npp.htm

|archive-date=24 June 2008

|url-status=dead

}} where his classmates included Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer and Conservative member of the House of Lords Andrew Cooper.{{cite web |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/03/keir-starmer-sensible-radical |title=Keir Starmer: The sensible radical |last=Maguire |first=Patrick |date=31 March 2020 |website=New Statesman |access-date=3 July 2020 |archive-date=5 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200405171214/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/03/keir-starmer-sensible-radical |url-status=live }} He won a scholarship in 1981 to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was awarded a first-class Bachelor of Arts in modern history and modern languages.{{cite web

|title=Andrew's Bio

|work=The Atlantic

|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/bio.html

|access-date=28 July 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080727212747/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/bio.html| archive-date= 27 July 2008 | url-status= live}} He founded the Pooh Stick Society at Oxford and in his second year was elected president of the Oxford Union for Trinity term 1983.{{cite magazine |first=Christine |last=Toomey |title=Englishman Aboard |magazine=The Sunday Times Magazine |date=1992 |pages=44–46}}

After writing briefly for a newspaper, Sullivan won a scholarship in 1984 to Harvard University, where he earned a Master in Public Administration in 1986 from the John F. Kennedy School of Government{{cite news|last=Van Auken|first=Dillon|title=Andrew Sullivan Lectures at IOP|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/11/18/andrew-sullivan-iop-lecture/|access-date=25 January 2012|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|date=18 November 2011|archive-date=8 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130808125130/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/11/18/andrew-sullivan-iop-lecture/|url-status=live}} and a Ph.D. in government in 1990. His dissertation was titled Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott.{{cite news|last=Brooks|first=David|title=Arguing With Oakeshott|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/27/opinion/arguing-with-oakeshott.html|access-date=25 January 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=27 December 2003|archive-date=16 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516031349/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/27/opinion/arguing-with-oakeshott.html|url-status=live}}

Sullivan first wrote for The Daily Telegraph on American politics. In 1986, he went to work for The New Republic magazine initially on a summer internship; among the most significant articles he wrote were "Gay Life Gay Death", an essay on the AIDS crisis, and "Sleeping with the Enemy", in which he attacked the practice of "outing", both of which earned him recognition in the gay community. He was appointed the editor of The New Republic in October 1991, a position he held until 1996. In that position, he expanded the magazine from its traditional roots in political coverage to cultural issues and the politics surrounding them. During this time, the magazine generated several high-profile controversies.

While completing graduate work at Harvard in 1988, Sullivan published an attack in Spy magazine on Rhodes Scholars, "All Rhodes Lead Nowhere in Particular", which dismissed them as "hustling apple-polisher[s]"; "high-profile losers"; "the very best of the second-rate"; and "misfits by the very virtue of their bland, eugenic perfection." "[T]he sad truth is that as a rule," Sullivan wrote, "Rhodies possess none of the charms of the aristocracy and all of the debilities: fecklessness, excessive concern that peasants be aware of their achievement, and a certain hemophilia of character."Sullivan, Andrew. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y78i5nkBWxgC&dq=rhodes+to+nowhere+andrew+sullivan&pg=PA282 All Rhodes Lead Nowhere in Particular] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411161244/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y78i5nkBWxgC&dq=rhodes+to+nowhere+andrew+sullivan&pg=PA282 |date=11 April 2023 }}", Spy, October 1988, pp. 108–114. Quoted in Schaeper, Thomas J.; Schaeper, Kathleen. The Rhodes Scholarship, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite, Berghahn Books, 2010, pp. 281–285. {{ISBN|978-1845457211}} Author Thomas Schaeper notes that "[i]ronically, Sullivan had first gone to the United States on a Harkness Fellowship, one of many scholarships spawned in emulation of the Rhodes program."

In 1994, Sullivan published excerpts on race and intelligence from Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's controversial The Bell Curve, which argued that some of the measured difference in IQ scores among racially defined groups was a result of genetic inheritance. Almost the entire editorial staff of the magazine threatened to resign if material that they considered racist was published.{{cite web|url=http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/andrew-sullivan-thinking-out-loud|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425202254/http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/andrew-sullivan-thinking-out-loud|archive-date=25 April 2009 |title=Andrew Sullivan: Thinking. Out. Loud. |newspaper=Intelligent Life |date=Spring 2009 |access-date=24 October 2013|first=Johann |last=Hari}} To appease them, Sullivan included lengthy rebuttals from 19 writers and contributors. He has continued to speak approvingly of the research and arguments presented in The Bell Curve, writing, "The book ... still holds up as one of the most insightful and careful of the last decade. The fact of human inequality and the subtle and complex differences between various manifestations of being human—gay, straight, male, female, black, Asian—is a subject worth exploring, period."{{cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2128199|title=The Bell Curve revisited.|journal=Slate |date=17 October 2005|access-date=22 January 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100210010840/http://www.slate.com/id/2128199| archive-date= 10 February 2010 | url-status= live|last1=Metcalf |first1=Stephen }} According to Sullivan, this incident was a turning point in his relationship with the magazine's staff and management, which he conceded was already bad because he "was a lousy manager of people." He left the magazine in 1996.

Sullivan began writing for The New York Times Magazine in 1998, but editor Adam Moss fired him in 2002. Jack Shafer wrote in Slate magazine that he had asked Moss in an email to explain this decision, but that his emails went unanswered, adding that Sullivan was not fully forthcoming on the subject. Sullivan wrote on his blog that the decision had been made by Times executive editor Howell Raines, who found Sullivan's presence "uncomfortable", but defended Raines's right to fire him. Sullivan suggested that Raines did so in response to Sullivan's criticism of the Times on his blog, and said he had expected that his criticisms would anger Raines.{{cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2065829|title=Raines-ing in Andrew Sullivan|journal=Slate|date=15 May 2002|access-date=1 August 2010|last1=Shafer|first1=Jack|archive-date=19 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119213600/http://www.slate.com/id/2065829/|url-status=live}}

Sullivan has also worked as a columnist for The Sunday Times of London.{{cite news|author=Andrew Sullivan |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/back-together-me-fatboy-slim-and-the-rest-of-the-upwardly-mobile-gang-kpx2ftwkfmw |title=Back together: me, Fatboy Slim and the rest of the Upwardly Mobile Gang |work=The Sunday Times |date=23 June 2013 |access-date=28 October 2021}}

Ross Douthat and Tyler Cowen have suggested that Sullivan is the most influential political writer of his generation, particularly because of his very early and strident support for same-sex marriage, his early political blog, his support of the Iraq War, and his support of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy.{{cite news|last=Douthat|first=Ross|title=The Influence of Andrew Sullivan|url=http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/the-influence-of-andrew-sullivan/|access-date=23 October 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=2 July 2013|archive-date=4 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104114707/http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/the-influence-of-andrew-sullivan/|url-status=live}}

After the cessation of his long-running blog, The Dish, in 2015,{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Andrew|title=The Years of Writing Dangerously|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/02/06/the-years-of-writing-dangerously/|website=The Dish|date=February 6, 2015|access-date=July 20, 2020|archive-date=17 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317041553/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/02/06/the-years-of-writing-dangerously/|url-status=live}} Sullivan wrote regularly for New York during the 2016 presidential election,{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/author/andrew-sullivan/?start=150|title=Most recent Articles By:Andrew Sullivan|access-date=July 20, 2020|archive-date=20 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720215624/https://nymag.com/author/andrew-sullivan/?start=150|url-status=live}} and in 2017 began writing a weekly column, "Interesting Times", for the magazine.{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Andrew|title=The Madness of King Donald|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/02/andrew-sullivan-the-madness-of-king-donald.html|website=New York|date=July 17, 2020|access-date=July 20, 2020|archive-date=20 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720200217/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/02/andrew-sullivan-the-madness-of-king-donald.html|url-status=live}}

On July 19, 2020, after the unexplained absence of his column for June 5,{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Andrew|title=Heads up: my column won't be appearing this week.|url=https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1268564124423933953|website=Twitter|date=June 4, 2020|access-date=July 20, 2020|archive-date=9 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609184708/https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1268564124423933953|url-status=live}} Sullivan announced that he would no longer write for New York and would be reviving The Dish as a newsletter, The Weekly Dish, hosted by Substack.{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Andrew|title=See You Next Friday: A Farewell Letter|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-you-next-friday.html |website=New York|date=July 17, 2020|access-date=July 20, 2020}}{{cite magazine |last1=Recker |first1=Jane |title=Substack Is Attracting Big DC Journos. Who's Making the Leap? |url=https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/12/22/substack-is-attracting-big-dc-journos-whos-making-the-leap/ |magazine=Washingtonian |date=December 22, 2020 |access-date=25 February 2021 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409202546/https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/12/22/substack-is-attracting-big-dc-journos-whos-making-the-leap/ |url-status=live }}

Sullivan describes himself as a conservative and is the author of The Conservative Soul. He has supported a number of traditional libertarian positions, favouring limited government and opposing social interventionist measures such as affirmative action. But on many controversial public issues, including same-sex marriage, social security, progressive taxation, anti-discrimination laws, the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. government's use of torture, and capital punishment, he has taken positions not typically shared by conservatives in the United States.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}} In 2012, Sullivan said, "the catastrophe of the Bush–Cheney years ... all but exploded the logic of neoconservatism and its domestic partner-in-crime, supply-side economics."[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

File:Michael Oakeshott.jpg was a major intellectual influence on Sullivan.]]

One of the most important intellectual and political influences on Sullivan is Michael Oakeshott. 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." 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." In 1984, he wrote that Oakeshott offered "a conservatism which ends by affirming a radical liberalism." 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."{{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}}

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", after the 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 politics.

From 1980 through 2000, Sullivan supported Republican presidential candidates in the U.S., with the exception of the 1992 election, when he supported Bill Clinton.{{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}} 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,{{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}} and supported Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Sullivan endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in the 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-like conspiracy theory involving Palin and her young son Trig.{{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}} 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.{{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|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}}

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."{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/barack-obama-fo.html |title=The Daily Dish | 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}} Sullivan continued to maintain that Obama was the best choice for president from a conservative point of view. During the 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?"{{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}}

Sullivan has declared support for Arnold Schwarzenegger{{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 }} and other like-minded Republicans.{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/ron-paul-for-th.html |title=The Daily Dish | 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}}[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 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 fundamentalist certainty, both in religious and political terms.{{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}} He has said this is the primary source of his alienation from the modern Republican Party.{{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}}

In 2009, Forbes ranked Sullivan 19th on a list of "The 25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media".{{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 }} Sullivan rejected the "liberal" label and set out his grounds in a published article in response.{{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 }}

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,{{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 |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 }}{{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 }} the belief that political opponents are a societal cancer who should be separated, censored, or exterminated.{{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 |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 }}

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."{{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 }} This led to "a trend of white male journalists proclaiming that AIDS is over", according to Sarah Schulman.{{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 }}

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 gay rights movement as "mainstreaming gay and lesbian people" rather than "radical social change".{{cite book|first=Urvashi |last=Vaid |authorlink=Urvashi Vaid |title=Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation |publisher=Doubleday | location = New York City |date =1996 |isbn =978-1101972342 |page=37}} Sullivan wrote the first major article in the U.S. advocating for gay people to be given the right to marry, published in The New Republic in 1989.{{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}} According to one columnist for 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." In the wake of the 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."

As of 2007, Sullivan opposed hate crime laws, arguing that they undermine freedom of speech and equal protection.{{cite web|url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/hate_crimes_and.html |title=The Daily Dish | 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}}

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.{{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}}{{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}}{{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}} 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."{{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}}

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.{{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}}

In a September 2019 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.{{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|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}} In November 2019, Sullivan wrote another Intelligencer column on young women who, in their teens, had begun to transition to live as men but later detransitioned. In that article, he discussed the 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".{{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|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}} In April 2021, he said it should be illegal for doctors to initiate cross-sex hormones for children under 16 or sex reassignment surgery for children under 18.{{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}}

In 1996, Sullivan's book Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality won the Mencken Award for Best Book, presented by the Free Press Association.{{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}} In 2006, Sullivan was named an LGBT History Month icon.{{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}}

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" 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 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."{{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 |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 }} 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".{{cite magazine |last=Alterman |first=Eric |date=8 April 2002 |title=Sullivan's Travails |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 }}

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.{{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}} He argued that enemy combatants in the war on terror should not have been given status as prisoners of war because "terrorists are not soldiers",{{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}} but he believed that the U.S. government was required to abide by the rules of war—in particular, Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions—when dealing with such detainees.{{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}} In retrospect, Sullivan said that the torture and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had jolted him back to "sanity". 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."

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."{{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}} 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.

Sullivan authored an opinion piece, "Dear President Bush," that was featured as the cover article of the October 2009 edition of The Atlantic.{{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 }} 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.

Sullivan has said that he has "always been a Zionist",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. but his views of Israel have become more critical over time. In February 2009, he wrote that he could no longer take the neoconservative position on Israel seriously.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.

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, 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."{{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}} His post was criticised by Noah Pollak of Commentary, who called it "crazy", "heady stuff" based on "hubris".{{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|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}}

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.{{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}} Sullivan rejected the accusation and was defended by some writers, while others at least partly supported Wieseltier.{{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 }}

In March 2019, Sullivan wrote in 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 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."{{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|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}}

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."{{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 }}

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.{{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 }}

Writing for 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.{{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 }} Sullivan has advocated for tighter immigration controls on asylum and overall lower levels of immigration. He has criticized Democrats for what he perceived as their unwillingness to implement such controls.{{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 }}

As editor at The New Republic, Sullivan published excerpts from the 1994 book The Bell Curve, by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. The book, which contains a chapter about IQ in society and public policy, argues that there are innate differences in intelligence among racial groups. This view of an innate connection between race and intelligence is rejected by the majority of scientists.{{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)}}{{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 }}{{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 }}{{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).}}{{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 }}

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".{{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 }} The importance of Sullivan to the popularization of The Bell Curve and race science was noted by Matthew Yglesias, who called Sullivan "the punditocracy's original champion of Murray's thinking on genetics".{{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 }} 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."{{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 }}

In late 2000, Sullivan began his blog, The Daily Dish. The core principle of the blog has been the style of conservatism he views as traditional. This includes fiscal conservatism, limited government, and classic libertarianism on social issues. Sullivan opposes government involvement with respect to sexual and consensual matters between adults, such as the use of marijuana and prostitution. He believes recognition of same-sex marriage is a civil-rights issue but expressed willingness to promote it on a state-by-state legislative federalism basis, rather than trying to judicially impose the change.{{cite web|url=http://www.thestranger.com/2004-06-24/ex6.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040804191145/http://www.thestranger.com/2004-06-24/ex6.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 August 2004 |title=Give Federalism a Chance |publisher=The Stranger | last=Sullivan | first=Andrew |date=24 June 2004 |access-date=9 March 2009 }} Most of Sullivan's disputes with other conservatives have been over social issues and the handling of postwar Iraq.

Sullivan gave out yearly "awards" for various public statements, parodying those of the people the awards were named after. Throughout the year, nominees were mentioned in various blog posts. The readers of his blog chose winners at the end of each year.{{cite web |title=The Daily Dish Awards |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/awards.html |author= Andrew Sullivan |work=The Atlantic |date=16 September 2008 |access-date=17 March 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090305024827/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/awards.html|archive-date= 5 March 2009 |url-status=dead}}

• The Hugh Hewitt Award, introduced in June 2008 and named after a man Sullivan described as an "absurd partisan fanatic", was for the most egregious attempts to label Barack Obama as un-American, alien, treasonous, and far out of the mainstream of American life and politics.
• The John Derbyshire Award was for egregious and outlandish comments on gays, women, and minorities.
• The Paul Begala Award was for extreme liberal hyperbole.
• The Michelle Malkin Award was for shrill, hyperbolic, divisive, and intemperate right-wing rhetoric. (Ann Coulter was ineligible for this award so that, in Sullivan's words, "other people will have a chance.")
• The Michael Moore Award was for divisive, bitter, and intemperate left-wing rhetoric.
• The Matthew Yglesias Award was for writers, politicians, columnists, or pundits who criticised their own side of the political spectrum, made enemies among political allies, and generally risked something for the sake of saying what they believed.
• The "Poseur Alert" was awarded for passages of prose that stood out for pretension, vanity, and bad writing designed to look profound.
• The Dick Morris Award (formerly the Von Hoffman Award) was for stunningly wrong cultural, political, and social predictions. Sullivan renamed this award in September 2012, saying that Von Hoffman was "someone who in many ways got the future right—at least righter than I did."

In February 2007, Sullivan moved his blog from Time to The Atlantic Monthly, where he had accepted an editorial post. His presence was estimated to have contributed as much as 30% of the subsequent traffic increase for The Atlantic{{'s}} website.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/business/media/21atlantic.html |title=A Venerable Magazine Energizes Its Web Site |work=The New York Times |date=21 January 2008 |access-date=4 December 2013 |archive-date=3 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205015/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/business/media/21atlantic.html |url-status=live }}

In 2009, The Daily Dish won the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Blog.{{cite web |url=http://2008.weblogawards.org/ |title=The 2008 Weblog Awards |publisher=The 2008 Weblog Awards |access-date=11 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808095226/http://2008.weblogawards.org/ |archive-date=8 August 2010 |url-status=usurped }}

Sullivan left The Atlantic to begin blogging at The Daily Beast in April 2011.{{cite web |last=Cleland |first=Elizabeth |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/02/home-news.html |title=Home News |work=The Atlantic |date=1 April 2011 |access-date=4 December 2013 |archive-date=7 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307121638/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/02/home-news.html |url-status=live }} In 2013, he announced that he was leaving The Daily Beast to launch The Dish as a stand-alone website, charging subscribers $20 a year.{{cite web|last=Gillmor|first=Dan|title=Andrew Sullivan plans to serve Daily Dish by subscription|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/03/andrew-sullivan-daily-dish-subscription?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487|work=The Guardian|date=3 January 2013|access-date=6 January 2013|archive-date=3 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205516/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/03/andrew-sullivan-daily-dish-subscription?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Bell|first=Emily|title=The Daily Dish may feed minds but will Andrew Sullivan taste a profit?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/06/daily-dish-andrew-sullivan|work=The Guardian|date=6 January 2013|access-date=6 January 2013|archive-date=3 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205620/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/06/daily-dish-andrew-sullivan|url-status=live}}

In a note posted on The Dish on 28 January 2015, Sullivan announced his decision to retire from blogging.{{Cite web|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/01/28/a-note-to-my-readers/|title=A Note To My Readers|date=28 January 2015|access-date=28 January 2015|archive-date=28 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128190257/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/01/28/a-note-to-my-readers/|url-status=live}}[https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/andrew-sullivan-blogger-extraordinaire-decides-that-its-time-to-stop-dishing/2015/01/28/681ad5d2-a72e-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html?tid=hpModule_1f58c93a-8a7a-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e Andrew Sullivan, blogger extraordinaire, decides that it's time to stop dishing], The Washington Post, 28 January 2015 He posted his final blog entry on 6 February 2015.{{cite web|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/02/06/the-years-of-writing-dangerously/|title=The Years of Writing Dangerously|access-date=22 March 2015|date=6 February 2015|first=Andrew|last=Sullivan|work=The Daily Dish|archive-date=17 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317041553/http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/02/06/the-years-of-writing-dangerously/|url-status=live}} On 26 June 2015, he posted an additional piece in reaction to Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/06/26/it-is-accomplished/|title=It Is Accomplished|work=The Dish|date=26 June 2015|access-date=11 August 2015|archive-date=3 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240903205518/https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/06/26/it-is-accomplished/|url-status=live}}

In July 2020, Sullivan announced that The Dish would be revived as a weekly feature, including a column and podcast;{{Cite web|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|date=2020-07-17|title=Andrew Sullivan: See You Next Friday|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-you-next-friday.html|access-date=2020-07-17|website=Intelligencer|language=en-us|archive-date=17 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717195526/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-you-next-friday.html|url-status=live}} he published there and elsewhere a notable obituary of Queen Elizabeth II."The genius of a monarchy embedded in a democracy," National Post 19 Sep. 2022.

In 2001, it came to light that Sullivan had posted anonymous online advertisements for unprotected anal sex, preferably with "other HIV-positive men". He was widely criticised in the media for this, with some critics noting that he had condemned Bill Clinton's "incautious behavior", though others wrote in his defence.{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010618/kim20010605 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090517065441/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010618/kim20010605 |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 May 2009 |title=Andrew Sullivan, Overexposed |work=The Nation |access-date=9 March 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/06/05/sullivan/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030902000322/http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/06/05/sullivan/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 September 2003 |title=My story was ethical |work=Salon |date=5 June 2001 |access-date=9 March 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/10/20/sullivan/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030830024552/http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/10/20/sullivan/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 August 2003 |title=Salon.com Andrew Sullivan's jihad |work=Salon |date=20 October 2001 |access-date=9 March 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/06/02/sullivan/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030830043943/http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/06/02/sullivan/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 August 2003 |title=Salon.com in defense of Andrew Sullivan |work=Salon |date=2 June 2001 |access-date=9 March 2009 }}

In 2003, Sullivan wrote a Salon article identifying himself as a member of the gay "bear community".{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/opinion/sullivan/2003/08/01/bears/index_np.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031228060225/http://archive.salon.com/opinion/sullivan/2003/08/01/bears/index_np.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 December 2003 |title=I am bear, hear me roar! |work=Salon |date=1 August 2003 |access-date=9 March 2009 }} On 27 August 2007, he married Aaron Tone in Provincetown, Massachusetts.{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042503150.html#sullivan | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=At Artomatic, a Rocket Ship Blasts Off; That's the Breaks | first1=Amy | last1=Argetsinger | first2=Roxanne | last2=Roberts | date=26 April 2007 | access-date=25 April 2010 | archive-date=23 November 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123033617/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042503150.html#sullivan | url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/31332.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070915092100/http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/31332.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 September 2007 |title=Independent Gay Forum – The Poltroon and the Groom |publisher=Indegayforum.org |access-date=9 March 2009 }}{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article2283227.ece | work=The Times | location=London | title=My small gay wedding is finally here help | date=19 August 2007 | access-date=25 April 2010 | first=Andrew | last=Sullivan | archive-date=10 May 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510023041/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article2283227.ece | url-status=dead }} On May 26, 2023, Sullivan announced on his blog that he and Tone had divorced the previous week.{{cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Andrews |date=26 May 2023 |title=The Resistance Resists...DeSantis |url=https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-resistance-resists-desantis |website=The Weekly Dish |quote=Almost two decades after we met, Aaron and I got a divorce last week. It hasn’t been easy, and my heart is still somewhat broken, but we are still close, and love and care deeply for each other, and always will, and this was a very amicable agreement. His dreams took him to the West Coast and we tried to make it work long-distance, but it didn’t work out. Sometimes the right thing to do is the saddest. Thanks for respecting his privacy. I’ll be 60 in a couple of months. Life begins again. |access-date=12 June 2023 |archive-date=12 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612222939/https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-resistance-resists-desantis |url-status=live }}

Sullivan was barred for many years from applying for U.S. citizenship because of his HIV-positive status.{{cite web |url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?194650-1/qa-andrew-sullivan |title=Q&A with Andrew Sullivan (see 45:44 to 46:27) |publisher=C-SPAN |date=4 October 2006 |access-date=25 March 2015 |archive-date=9 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109044226/http://www.c-span.org/video/?194650-1/qa-andrew-sullivan |url-status=live }} Following the statutory and administrative repeals of the HIV immigration ban in 2008 and 2009, respectively, he announced his intention to begin the process of becoming a permanent resident and citizen.{{cite web |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/07/the-hiv-travel.html |work=The Daily Dish |title=The HIV Travel Ban: Still In Place |access-date=29 January 2013 |archive-date=31 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131051723/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/07/the-hiv-travel.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/free-at-last.html |work=The Daily Dish |title=Free at Last |date=30 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091226085309/http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/free-at-last.html |archive-date=26 December 2009 |url-status=live |access-date=19 December 2009}} On The Chris Matthews Show on 16 April 2011, Sullivan confirmed that he had become a permanent resident, showing his green card.{{cite web|url=http://video.thechrismatthewsshow.com/player/?fid=31183|title=Weekend of April 16–17, 2011 – Videos – The Chris Matthews Show|publisher=videos.thechrismatthewsshow.com|access-date=17 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510020352/http://video.thechrismatthewsshow.com/player/?fid=31183|archive-date=10 May 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} On 1 December 2016, Sullivan became a naturalised US citizen.{{Cite news|url=http://nymag.com/press/2017/01/cover-andrew-sullivan-on-becoming-an-american-citizen.html|title=On the Cover: Andrew Sullivan on Becoming an American Citizen|newspaper=New York Press Room|language=en|access-date=28 January 2017|archive-date=31 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331120129/http://nymag.com/press/2017/01/cover-andrew-sullivan-on-becoming-an-american-citizen.html|url-status=live}}

He has been a daily user of cannabis since 2001.{{cite magazine|url=http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/yes-im-dependent-on-weed.html|title=Yes, I'm Dependent on Weed|first=Andrew|last=Sullivan|magazine=New York Magazine|date=15 September 2017|access-date=16 September 2017|archive-date=15 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915192425/http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/yes-im-dependent-on-weed.html|url-status=live}}

Sullivan identifies himself as a faithful Catholic while disagreeing with some aspects of the Catholic Church's doctrine.

He expressed concern about the election of Pope Benedict XVI in a Time magazine article on 24 April 2005, titled "The Vicar of Orthodoxy".{{cite magazine |author=Andrew Sullivan |date=24 April 2005 |title=The Vicar of Orthodoxy |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050502/sosullivan.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090320160656/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050502/sosullivan.html |archive-date=20 March 2009 |access-date=9 March 2009 |magazine=Time}} He wrote that Benedict was opposed to the modern world and women's rights, and considered gays and lesbians innately disposed to evil. Sullivan has, however, agreed with Benedict's assertion that reason is an integral element of faith.

Sullivan takes a moderate approach to religion, rejecting fundamentalism and describing himself as a "dogged defender of pluralism and secularism."

Sullivan was a friend of late journalist and atheist writer Christopher Hitchens,{{Cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Andrew |date=2011-12-16 |title=Andrew Sullivan Recalls a Memorable Brunch Invitation from Hitchens |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-death-andrew-sullivan-on-his-fellow-englishman.html |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en |archive-date=11 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511084204/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-death-andrew-sullivan-on-his-fellow-englishman.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Miniter |first=Richard |title=Christopher Hitchens, As I Knew Him |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardminiter/2011/12/16/christopher-hitchens-as-i-knew-him/ |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Forbes |language=en |archive-date=11 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511084236/https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardminiter/2011/12/16/christopher-hitchens-as-i-knew-him/ |url-status=live }}and often debated religion with him.{{cite news |last1=Sullivan |first1=Andrew |date=August 15, 2010 |title=Feel the love, Hitch — it will survive you |url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/andrew-sullivan-feel-the-love-hitch-it-will-survive-you-hdjl2vpgrrh |access-date=10 January 2024 |publisher=The Sunday Times |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110002938/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/andrew-sullivan-feel-the-love-hitch-it-will-survive-you-hdjl2vpgrrh |url-status=live }} Sullivan also defended religious moderates in a series of exchanges with atheist author Sam Harris.

;As author

• Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality (1995). Knopf. {{ISBN|0-679-42382-6}}.
• Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex and Survival (1998). Knopf. {{ISBN|0-679-45119-6}}.
• The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back (2006). HarperCollins. {{ISBN|0-06-018877-4}}.
• Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott (2007). Imprint Academic. {{ISBN|978-0-907845-28-7}}
• Out on a Limb: Selected Writing, 1989–2021 (2021). Avid Reader Press. {{ISBN|978-1501155895}}

;As editor

• Same-Sex Marriage Pro & Con: A Reader (1997). Vintage. {{ISBN|0-679-77637-0}}. First edition
• Same-Sex Marriage Pro & Con: A Reader (2004). Vintage. {{ISBN|1-4000-7866-0}}. Second edition
• The View from Your Window: The World as Seen by Readers of One Blog (2009). Blurb.com

{{reflist}}

{{external media

|video1=[https://www.c-span.org/video/?66925-1/virtually-normal Booknotes interview with Sullivan on Virtually Normal, 1 October 1995.]

|video2=[http://www.c-span.org/video/?194650-1/qa-andrew-sullivan C-SPAN Q&A interview with Sullivan, 15 October 2006]

|video3=[http://92yondemand.org/in-the-news-with-jeff-greenfield-andrew-sullivan/ In the News with Jeff Greenfield: Andrew Sullivan], 92 St Y, 29 March 2015

}}

{{wikiquote}}

• {{Substack pub|andrewsullivan|The Weekly Dish}}
• [http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/ The Dish], Andrew Sullivan's blog
• [https://www.theatlantic.com/andrew-sullivan/ Column archive (2009–2009)] at The Atlantic
• [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/why-i-blog/7060/ Why I Blog], November 2008
• {{C-SPAN|2989}}
• {{Charlie Rose view|482}}
• {{IMDb name|1783797}}
• {{NYTtopic|people/s/andrew_sullivan}}
• [http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/05/worlds-best-blogger World's Best Blogger?], Harvard Magazine, May–June 2011

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Andrew}}

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