Andrew Michael Sullivan is a conservative author and political commentator, distinguished by his often personal style of political analysis, and pioneering achievements in the field of blog journalism.
Sullivan was born in South Godstone, Surrey, England, to a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent, and received a BA in modern history from Oxford University, where in his second year he was elected president of the prestigious Oxford Union. He went on to earn a masters degree in public administration and a Ph.D in government at Harvard University.
In 1986, he began his career with The New Republic magazine, serving as its editor from 1991 to 1996.In that position, he expanded the magazine from its traditional roots in political coverage to cultural politics and the issues around them. This produced some groundbreaking journalism but also courted several high-profile controversies.
Sullivan is known for his unusual personal-political identity (HIV-positive, gay, self-described conservative often at odds with other conservatives, and practising Roman Catholic). He is also the author of three books.
Sullivan is a speaker at major universities, colleges, and civic organisations in the United States, and a frequent guest on many national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. Born and raised in England, he has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Provincetown, MA.He was one of the most popular bloggers at Time Magazine. On Jan. 19, 2007, Sullivan announced through his blog that he would be leaving Time to work at the Atlantic Monthly and has since done so.
Sullivan is a libertarian conservative who has most currently argued that the Republican Party has abandoned true conservative principles. After supporting George W Bush in the 2000 Presidential election, he endorsed Senator John Kerry for President in 2004. In 2006, he supported the Democratic Party's takeover of Congress. His political philosophy includes a broad range of traditional conservative positions: He favours a flat tax, limited government, privatisation of social security, and a strong military, and he opposes welfare state programmes such as socialised medicine. However, on a number of controversial public issues — for instance, same-sex marriage and the death penalty — he takes a position typically shared by those on the left of the US political spectrum. His position on abortion is more nuanced; saying that he personally finds it immoral but he can accept legalised abortions in the first trimester.
In late 2000, Sullivan began his blog, The Daily Dish. In the wake of September 11 it became one of the most popular political blogs on the Internet. By the middle of 2003, it was receiving about 300,000 unique visits per month. Between starting his blog and ending his New Republic editorship, Sullivan wrote two works on homosexuality, arguing for its social acceptance on libertarian grounds. His writing appears in a number of widely-read publications. He currently serves as a columnist for The Sunday Times.
Andrew Sullivan identifies himself as a member of the bear community. He married his partner Aaron Tone in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2007.