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Jonathan Rauch
Jonathan Rauch is the author of Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America. He has been writing books and magazine articles on ideas, culture, and public policy since the early 1980s, and he has written on gay-related topics as an openly gay author since 1991, when, in an article for The New Republic, he criticized hate-crimes laws from a gay point of view.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1960, Rauch studied at Yale University and then worked for two years as a reporter at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina. In 1984, he moved to Washington, where he worked first for National Journal magazine — a nonpartisan, in-depth journal on government and public policy — and then went on to become a freelance writer, with work appearing in many magazines and newspapers. He won the 2005 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary.
On gay-related topics, he has argued the case for gay marriage and against hate-crimes laws and "prejudice police"; tried to explain to conservatives why they ought to welcome rather than fight gay advancement; and tried to explain to gay activists why the activist model should move "beyond oppression." He is the author of several books in addition to Gay Marriage: The Outnation (1992), on Japan, where he spent six months as a Japan Society Fellow; Kindly Inquisitors (1993), on new attacks on freedom of thought; and Demosclerosis (1994), on the continuing petrification of government in Washington (revised and republished in 1999 as Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working).
He currently writes a biweekly column for National Journal, is a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, and does not like shrimp.
Visit Jonathan Rauch at JonathanRauch.com.
Books by Jonathan Rauch
Beyond Queer: Challenging Gay Left Orthodoxy (contributor)
Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America
Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working
Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks On Free Thought
Contributions
- The Election Turned a Corner. Can We?, by Jonathan Rauch, November 23, 2008
- California’s Invisible Gays, by Jonathan Rauch, October 27, 2008
- Gay Marriage Is Good for America, by Jonathan Rauch, June 22, 2008
- It's Self-Defense, Stupid, by Jonathan Rauch, March 23, 2008
- America's Unique Gay Mission, by Jonathan Rauch, January 6, 2008
- Gay Marriage: The Case Against the Case Against, by Jonathan Rauch, June 12, 2007
- Let States Lead, by Jonathan Rauch, March 21, 2007
- A Pariah’s Triumph—and America’s, by Jonathan Rauch, December 2, 2006
- First AIDS. Then Marriage, by Jonathan Rauch, June 4, 2006
- Gay Marriage Amendment: Case Closed, by Jonathan Rauch, May 26, 2006
- One Man, Many Wives, Big Problems, by Jonathan Rauch, April 1, 2006
- A Traditional Gay Wedding, by Jonathan Rauch, October 15, 2005
- Family's Value: Why Gay Marriage Benefits Straight Kids, by Jonathan Rauch, May 30, 2005
- Saying No to 'I Do', by Jonathan Rauch, December 27, 2004
- McGreevey's Marriage Problem — and Ours, by Jonathan Rauch, August 15, 2004
- Virginia's New Jim Crow, by Jonathan Rauch, June 13, 2004
- Gay Marriage Is Risky. But Banning It Is Riskier, by Jonathan Rauch, May 15, 2004
- On Gay Marriage,Conservatives Betray Conservatism, by Jonathan Rauch, April 15, 2004
- Bush's Case for Same-Sex Marriage, by Jonathan Rauch, March 7, 2004
- On Same-Sex Marriage, Bush Failed the Public and Himself, by Jonathan Rauch, March 6, 2004
- The Supreme Court Ruled for Privacy — Not for Gay Marriage, by Jonathan Rauch, July 26, 2003
- An Independence Day Like No Other, by Jonathan Rauch, June 29, 2002
- Anything but Marriage?, by Jonathan Rauch, May 1, 2002
- Amend the Constitution?, by Jonathan Rauch, August 10, 2001
- Leave Gay Marriage to the States, by Jonathan Rauch, July 27, 2001
- Pink Pistols, by Jonathan Rauch, March 14, 2000
- Conventional Wisdom, by Jonathan Rauch, February 1, 2000
- The Right Approach to Gay Marriage, by Jonathan Rauch, December 28, 1999
- Marrying Somebody, by Jonathan Rauch, November 30, 1999
- The Maturity Gap, by Jonathan Rauch, October 31, 1999
- A Young Man, A Demon and A Virus, by Jonathan Rauch, October 16, 1999
- A Summer Serenade, by Jonathan Rauch, September 4, 1999
- The Future of the Movement: An Independent Vision, by Jonathan Rauch, August 28, 1999
- And Don't Forget Your Gun, by Jonathan Rauch, March 20, 1999
- The Last Gasp of Jim Crow, by Jonathan Rauch, November 21, 1998
- What's Wrong with 'Marriage Lite'?, by Jonathan Rauch, June 2, 1998
- A Pro-Gay, Pro-Family Policy, by Jonathan Rauch, November 29, 1994
- Morality and Homosexuality, by Jonathan Rauch, March 31, 1994
- Beyond Oppression, by Jonathan Rauch, May 10, 1993
- Thought Crimes, by Jonathan Rauch, October 7, 1991