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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

Anti-Abortion and Pro-Choice?

E.J. GraffNov 02, 2011
(Flickr/ClinicEscort)

Last week, I asked: So what if I hadn’t been born? In response, Rachael Larimore at Slate kindly took up my offer to discuss, as she puts it, “the lightest of topics”: abortion.

You will not be surprised to learn that we differ on some core points. First, she believes that embryos are human beings. Here she writes:

Speaking of Cultures Unfriendly to Homos ...

E.J. GraffNov 01, 2011

.... Uganda is reintroducing the bill that would impose the death penalty for being gay. The Open Society Institute (OSI) hosted a photography exhibit last spring called "Being Gay in Uganda" that showed Tadej Žnidarčič's powerful portraits, in which each individual is shown from the back. I had walked into OSI in New York for another purpose entirely when I saw what looked like the backs of some very cute women. (There were men too, but, well, I didn't notice them at first.) When I walked over to look more closely, my heart dropped through the floor. The short interviews—in which these people told of essentially being hunted and hated in their daily lives—nearly made me cry.

No Homos Need Apply

E.J. GraffNov 01, 2011

Am I hopelessly cynical, or what?

According to the online outlet Newser, a Georgia Baptist college, Shorter University (Motto: "Transforming Lives Through CHRIST"), has some specific expectations for its employees:

Can We Talk About Sexual Harassment?

E.J. GraffNov 01, 2011

Girls, girls, girls!

E.J. GraffOct 31, 2011
  • Over at New York magazine, Emily Nussbaum has written the perfect introduction to the new, fiery, sardonic, savvy generation of feminists who are making change online and in the streets. Nussbaum checks in with both the feminist blogosphere and the controversial “SlutWalks,” a series of anti-rape marches that have caught imaginative fire. The title has been hotly debated—but as young feminist leader Jessica Valenti has noted, it sure has gotten the attention that organizers wanted. Nussbaum writes:
     

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