...Did I know what I was? Somewhere, maybe. But it was much easier to know what I wasn't. I wasn't going to be able to enter into the world of dating girls; I wasn't going to be able to feel fully comfortable among the heterosexual climate of the male teenager. So I decided, consciously or subconsciously, to construct a trajectory of my life that would remove me from their company; give me an excuse, provide a dignified way out....

English journalist, editor, and author. Born and raised south of London, Sullivan earned his B.A. at Oxford University and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. His traditional conservatism, as he calls it, combining elements of both left and right-wing ideologies, has won a large readership for his insightful and sometimes acerbic commentary on the American political scene. A former editor of the New Republic, Sullivan began his politics blog, The Daily Dish, in 2000 and was soon attracting over 300,000 visits each month; The Daily Dish is currently hosted on The Atlantic Online, the Atlantic Monthly's online presence. Sullivan's five books include Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality (1995), which makes the case for samesex marriage; Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival (1998); and The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back (2006). See also andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com.