Recent News

When it comes to same-sex marriage, is pointed satire possible - not merely on the Jon Stewart or Jay Leno TV shows but in political life? Certainly not in federal court, where the issue has taken on a life-or-death quality for gays. But the ballot box is another story. The most important gay-rights case ever starts next month in San Francisco's federal court building. There's talk of bringing TV cameras into the courtroom, a…

When Don Griffin, the chancellor of San Francisco City College, announced a plan to sell naming rights to courses on his campus, the story made national news. The pundits had a field day. How about the Exxon ecology course, they chortled, or the Bernie Madoff finance class? What about Marlboro Human Biology or Seagram's Women's Fitness? I've got a message for all those snob sisters - get over yourselves. With California's higher…

Champagne corks were popping last week among supporters of same-sex marriage. No wonder: In the span of five days, the number of states where gays and lesbians could tie the knot doubled, from two to four. The Supreme Court of Iowa, a state not usually in the progressive vanguard, declared that gays had a right to marry. A few days later, Vermont's lawmakers, profiles in courage who overrode a governor's veto, voted to let same-sex couples…

Check out commencement photos from elite private universities like Harvard or Stanford, and you'll see a considerable number of black and Latino graduates. Race-conscious admissions policies are the main reason. A recent study finds that, at such schools, black and Hispanic students receive the equivalent of a 200 point edge in SAT scores. (Several states, including California, prohibit public universities from taking race into account, which is why just 3 percent of Berkeley students are African American - the same percentage…

There has been much gnashing of teeth, and not only in the gay community, over the selection of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the premier prayer at tomorrow's Inauguration. Understandably so -after all, the televangelist had famously likened same-sex marriage to incest, polygamy, and "an older guy marrying a child." It would be a mistake, though, to read the choice as signaling that the Obama administration will leave gays out in the cold. The decision to…