Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan (1963-) is a columnist for The Atlantic and a senior editor at The New Republic (TNR) (formerly its Editor). Since 2002, Sullivan has been a columnist for Time Magazine, and a regular guest on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" and NBC's "Chris Matthews' Show." One of the first mainstream journalists to blog, he started the Daily Dish and blogged for Time, but moved to The Atlantic Online in 2007. Once distinctly a conservative, his politics are now eclectic.

In the summer of 2000, Sullivan became one of the first mainstream journalists to experiment with blogging, and soon developed a large online readership with andrewsullivan.com's Daily Dish. Andrew has blogged independently and for Time.com, but in February 2007 Andrew moved his blog to The Atlantic Online where he now writes daily. and his book "The Conservative Soul" was published by HarperCollins in 2006.

International affairs
While he initially supported the Iraq War, he reversed his position in 2008.

He is hostile to neoconservatism.

Values and identity
In 2006, he wrote a Time essay on his difficulties with Christianism, from the perspective of a Christian who has found his faith preempted by the Christian Right, although he opposes the formation of a Christian Left.

In the early 1990s, Sullivan became known for being openly homosexual, and for pioneering such issues as gays in the military and same-sex marriage. His 1993 TNR essay, 'The Politics of Homosexuality,' was credited by the Nation magazine as the most influential article of the decade in gay rights. Sullivan tested positive for HIV in 1993, and remains in good health

In the late 1990s, Sullivan worked as a contributing writer and columnist for the New York Times Magazine, a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times of London.

His New York Times cover stories, 'When Plagues End,' a description of the changing AIDS epidemic in 1996, and 'The Scolds,' an analysis of the decline of American conservatism in 1998, became national talking points. His 1999 essay, 'What's So Bad About Hate,' is included in the 'Best American Essays of 1999.' His 2000 cover story on testosterone, 'Why Men Are Different,' provoked a flurry of controversy, as well as a cover-story in Time, and a documentary on the Discovery channel.

2006, The Conservative Mind His 1995 book, 'Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality,' was published to positive reviews, became one of the best-selling books on gay rights, and was translated into five languages. He followed it with a reader, 'Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con,' and testified before Congress on the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. His second book, 'Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival,' was published in 1998 in the United States and Britain. It was a synthesis of three essays on the plague of AIDS, homosexuality and psycho-therapy, and the virtue of friendship.

Early life
He was born in a small town in Southern England, South Godstone, and grew up in a neighboring town, East Grinstead, in West Sussex. In his summers, he interned as an editorial writer at The Daily Telegraph in London, and at the Centre For Policy Studies, Margaret Thatcher's informal think-tank, where he wrote a policy paper on the environment, called 'Greening The Tories.' At Harvard, he was best known for acting, appearing as Hamlet, Alan in Peter Shaffer's 'Equus,' and Mozart in Shaffer's 'Amadeus.' In the summer of 1985, he travelled through thirty of the United States.

Education

 * Reigate Grammar School
 * Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he took a First in Modern History and Modern Languages. He was also President of the Oxford Union in his Second Year at college, and spent his summer vacations as an actor in the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.
 * Harkness Fellowship to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, 1984
 * Masters degree in Public Administration in 1986.
 * Ph.D., political science, Harvard University, dissertation "=Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott." The thesis won the Government Department Prize for a dissertation in political science.