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E.J. Graff

E.J. Graff writes on social-justice and human-rights issues, particularly discrimination and violence against women and children; marriage and family policy; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives. She is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center and the author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (Beacon Press, 1999, 2004).

Recent Articles

Adoption Fraud in Guatemala

E.J. GraffSep 29, 2011

Last week, I discussed some of the fraud and corruption that haunt international adoption. If you're interested, you should know about Erin Siegal, author of the forthcoming Finding Fernanda, which explores kidnapping, fraud, and endemic corruption in adoptions from Guatemala. For years, that country was one of the top "sending" countries in international adoption -- and the one most widely considered to be riddled with fraud. As I wrote here at the website of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism:

It Doesn't Get Better for Bullies

E.J. GraffSep 28, 2011

Do you know the "It Gets Better" project? In response to last year's spate of gay-teen suicides, writer and editor Dan Savage launched a series of online videos in which adults tell teens: Hang on. High school isn't forever. You will have a good life. Some have been fabulous, burning their way across the Internets; I'm assuming you've seen those. Most are ordinary people, testifying to how much better it got when they waited. Had this been around, it certainly would have eased me through some of the agonizing teenage years when I was fighting the recognition that I might be one of them. You know. Like the girls' gym teacher. That way.

Marry Me

E.J. GraffSep 28, 2011

Yesterday, The Washington Post published a nice summary of the various federal lawsuits underway in the court battles over same-sex marriage, a piece occasioned by a panel at the College of William and Mary Law School's Institute of Bill of Rights Law. The panel, according to reporter Robert Barnes, was debating whether the government's political or judicial branch should decide whether same-sex couples' bonds should be recognized as "marriage" by federal law.

Can Tammy Baldwin Win?

E.J. GraffSep 27, 2011

Over at TheAtlantic.com, I look into the question of whether openly lesbian Tammy Baldwin can become Wisconsin's senator.

Pop quiz: What's the " L-word" that's likely to hurt her most?

Hint: It's not this one.

Here's an excerpt:

More on The Playboy Club

E.J. GraffSep 27, 2011

Here's a follow-up to my mini-review last week of NBC's The Playboy Club: a Daily Beast article, "My Mom's Life as a Playboy Bunny," by Susanna Spier. Spier interviews her mother about what things were really like. Was Hugh Hefner's comment -- that bunnies could be anything they wanted to be -- accurate? Ha.

We had only a handful of options, and being a Bunny was a brand-new one. ... Teacher, nurse, stewardess, secretary. Bunny increased our options by 20 percent. It didn't mean we could be brain surgeons. Hef's dots do not connect.

So why did she do it? Duh: for the money.

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