Meet two activists who brought sweeping change to the gay rights movement

[theHandpuppet]

The Washington Post Magazine
Oct 3, 2014
Meet two activists who brought sweeping change to the gay rights movement

Michelangelo Signorile does not hold back. Not then, not now.

A generation ago, he shouted down Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become Pope Benedict XVI. In the gay magazine he worked for, he accused gossip columnist Liz Smith and her high-society friends of being “murderers” for not doing enough about AIDS. And when he was incensed at closeted public figures, he printed their telephone numbers in giant type...

... Five years ago, as same-sex marriage gained momentum, a relative newcomer to gay activism launched a controversial strategy to win nationwide marriage equality in one fell swoop. Like Signorile, Chad Griffin didn’t ask permission and didn’t seek forgiveness from the major gay-rights groups, which have typically built support for marriage one step at a time. Most believed the national approach was dangerous — too much, too soon.

Griffin assembled his own crew, including star lawyers Theodore Olson and David Boies, and ultimately took a challenge to California’s gay marriage ban to the U.S. Supreme Court. That nationwide effort didn’t work, but same-sex marriage was back on in California, and the case elevated the profile of the marriage-equality campaign....

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