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Gabriel Arana

Gabriel Arana is a senior editor at The American Prospect. His articles on gay rights, immigration, and media have appeared in publications including The Nation, Salon, The Advocate, and The Daily Beast. To contact him, visit his website.

 

 

 

Recent Articles

Who's Free to Discriminate?

A Supreme Court case highlights how religious conservatives tend to forget that the separation of church and state protects religion from government -- not the other way around.

Gabriel AranaApr 15, 2010

In a case that involves dozens of religious groups as well as gay- and civil-rights organizations, the Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez on Monday. The justices will consider whether UC Hastings College of Law – a public institution – can deny funding to a campus religious group for violating the school's nondiscrimination policy. The Christian Legal Society, which requires its members to sign a pledge disavowing "fornication, adultery, and homosexual conduct," sued Hastings for refusing to recognize the student organization because it discriminates against gays.

John McWhorter's Silly Analysis of 'Palinspeak.'

Gabriel AranaApr 08, 2010

John McWhorter has an analysis of "Palinspeak" at The New Republic that has gotten quite a bit of attention. As a trained linguist (by happenstance I was a PhD candidate at Cornell, where McWhorter taught, before switching to journalism), I think his take is refreshingly devoid of cliché alarmism over the "decline of the English language." McWhorter makes the interesting observation that the style of political speech has shifted from the rigid scripted performances of politicians like Warren G.

They Doth Protest Too Much

These days, what's a good old-fashioned street demonstration worth?

Gabriel AranaApr 01, 2010

The Human Rights Campaign choreographed its rally against "don't ask, don't tell" last month to the smallest detail. Held midday on Washington's Freedom Plaza, it was headlined by comedian Kathy Griffin, who brought along the camera crew from her reality show, My Life on the D-List. After emerging from a cordoned-off area reserved for media, Griffin told a few jokes, then read letters from fans who had been affected by the military's policy. Rally participants held American flags distributed by HRC staff -- no drag queens, no rainbows -- and were told to pose, facing East, then South, then West. Photographers circled around them, snapping photos.

Downplaying Nativism

Gabriel AranaMar 31, 2010

Responding to my piece about the souring prospects for immigration reform, Ezra Klein makes the odd statement that nativism is the "dog that didn't bark" (Kevin Drum has a good response to this here). Ezra writes:

Better Path to Citizenship.

Gabriel AranaMar 29, 2010

Dara Lind responds to my critique of the Schumer-Graham blueprint for immigration reform. Her primary point is that the 800-word-or-so piece published in the Post is bound to exclude the full details of their proposal, especially those that are still being hammered out. However, I don't think I missed the importance of the Schumer-Graham plan to provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

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