The New Republic

One reason the idea of gay marriage, or “marriage equality,” spread so fast is that it seems obvious once you think about it. It was a genuinely new idea when it first appeared in this publication in 1989. As was not the case with civil rights for African Americans, feminism, or for that matter gay rights themselves, there was no long history of opposition to be overcome. The challenge was simply getting people to think about it a bit. READ MORE >>

From the start, both sides of the reproductive-rights debate have equally seen Kermit Gosnell as a prime example of everything that is wrong with abortion in America. READ MORE >>

This is the week of the television industry’s “upfronts,” during which the (now-ratings-challenged) major networks announce their lineups for next season. It’s also season finale time for Fox’s “New Girl,” one of the few recent network series to become a breakout hit. Not a bad occasion, then, to assess the state of the broadcast sitcom. READ MORE >>

I don’t have a whole lot in common with Angelina Jolie, but we do share a terrifying family history of breast cancer. Like Jolie, I lost my mother to cancer—mine at 49, Jolie’s at 56. Also like Jolie, I decided to have the genetic test for the BRCA1 and 2 mutations, which, if present, indicate a severely increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer over a lifetime. READ MORE >>

The anti-abortion movement's defining medium used to be the poster, typically featuring a misleading photo of a stillborn fetus much older than most states' abortion laws allowed. These days, it's probably the undercover video. READ MORE >>

Liz Meriwether is trying to figure out the best way to make READ MORE >>

Jane’s a flapper. That is a quaint, old-fashioned term, but I hope you remember its meaning. As you can tell by her appellation, Jane is 19. She urgently denies that she is a member of the younger generation. The younger generation, she will tell you, is aged 15 to 17; and she professes to be decidedly shocked at the things they do and say. This is a fact which would interest her minister, if he knew it – poor man, he knows so little! For he regards Jane as a perfectly horrible example of youth–paint, cigarettes, cocktails, petting parties–oooh! READ MORE >>

On Tuesday, The Onion published a piece jarringly titled, “Heartbroken Chris Brown Always Thought Rihanna Was Woman He’d Beat To Death.” It’s a riff on "the one that got away" truism—only instead of wistfully saying that he always thought he’d have kids with her, an imagined Chris Brown laments all the abuse he never got to visit upon his ex: “Despite all the ups and downs, I was so sure Rihanna was the one I’d take by the throat one day and fatally READ MORE >>

Last week, on the day that Sports Illustrated posted NBA player Jason Collins’s essay announcing his homosexuality, I was walking with Rebekah, our six-year-old. We were going to pick up our car at the auto mechanic’s shop on the corner, when across the street I spotted a neighbor going in the other direction, strolling hand-in-hand with her two-year-old son. They waved to me, and I said hi, and then we walked on. READ MORE >>

In a 1981 interview, the essayist and journalist Rebecca West was asked about a phrase she once deployed to characterize the difference between a male sensibility and a female one. “Idiots and lunatics,” she said. “It’s a perfectly good division.” West is rightly thought of as one of the twentieth century’s pithiest feminists, but she was never exactly part of a movement. READ MORE >>