This insistent return to questions of influence has to do with the fact that Symonds held conflicting views about the causes of same-sex desire.
Partly as a result, the cause of same-race adoption and fostering was promoted by government and local authorities throughout the country as good practice.
The president's courageous stance last week makes both a general and a specific contribution to the cause of same-sex marriage.
Jeffrey Toobin, in his article on the Supreme Court's consideration of same-sex marriage, writes that, no matter how the Court rules, the decision will not "set back the cause of same-sex marriage for a generation" (Comment, April 1st).
As a longtime leader in the gay-rights movement, and the husband of Jim Ready since 2012, Frank, who is now seventy-six, watheed the cause of same-sex marriage move from the fringe to the realm of conventional wisdom.
At the time, gay-rights organizations had been following a cautious, state-by-state approach, and it seemed that an adverse decision in a major federal lawsuit could set back the cause of same-sex marriage for a generation.
Taken together, the decisions indicated that while the Supreme Court was willing to substantially advance the cause of same-sex marriage, it was not yet ready to find a constitutional right to marriage equality.
In a statement, Washington United for Marriage said that the donation is believed to be the largest individual gift in the US towards the cause of same-sex marriage.
Ken Mehlman, President George W. Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has revealed that he is gay and is working to advance the cause of same-sex marriage.
THE NEWSKen Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign and chaired the Republican National Committee, revealed that he is gay and is working to advance the cause of same-sex marriage.
One aspect of Tuesday's results may hurt the cause of same-sex marriage in the courts, which sometimes insist on more searching judicial scrutiny of the justifications for measures that discriminate against politically powerless minorities than of those for ordinary legislation.
