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Jennifer Vanasco
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Jennifer Vanasco is the former editor in chief of MTV Network's 365gay.com and an award-winning, syndicated columnist.

She writes about social minorities, national politics, and culture.

Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, Chicago Tribune, the politics site of WNYC (New York public radio), Washington Blade, Chicago Reader and the Chicago Free Press, among other outlets, and in two anthologies: "Reading the ‘L’ Word" and "I Do, I Don’t: Queers on Marriage." She was a commentator on several televised segments of 365gay News on Logo’s Presidential Roundtable.

The Chicago chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded her three Lisagor Awards for opinion writing and Chicago Free Press readers named her best local writer. She is a former Deputy Director of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Office of Correspondence, where she wrote policy letters to Cabinet members.

Vanasco graduated from Wellesley College and lives in Manhattan with her wife Jenny. You can follow her at Twitter.com/JenniferVanasco.

Blog Entries by Jennifer Vanasco

Outside the Supreme Court Gay Marriage Rally, What's in a Name?

(4) Comments | Posted March 26, 2013 | 6:09 PM

Today, standing outside the Supreme Court on this historic day, the first day that the Court heard oral arguments on a gay marriage case, one thing became clear: We are winning.

Gays and lesbians might not win the battle over Prop 8, of course, or over DOMA (though I suspect...

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Why It Matters That Anderson Cooper Came Out as Gay

(365) Comments | Posted July 2, 2012 | 3:24 PM

When Anderson Cooper officially came out today in a beautiful, published email to his friend Andrew Sullivan, there was one collective response: A big yawn. "Who cares?" said people on Twitter. "Isn't this old news?" said people on Facebook. "When is a person's sexuality going to stop making...

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If New Religious 'Carve Outs' Are Too Extreme, Do Not Pass NY Gay Marriage

(161) Comments | Posted June 17, 2011 | 6:23 PM

For three days, we have been waiting.

For three days, those who care about marriage equality in New York have waited, huddled outside of doors, as Republicans have conferenced, as they've met privately with the governor, as they've agonized over -- what? Certainly not the opportunity to do...

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NYC World Trade Center Reaction to Bin Laden Death (Video)

(0) Comments | Posted May 2, 2011 | 12:20 PM

365gay.com was at the World Trade Center last night after news of Osama bin Laden's death hit New York.

The crowd had a variety of reactions -- from relief, to sadness for people lost in 9/11, to ambivalence about what might happen next. Video is below.

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I Wrote a Chicago Newspaper Column for 14 Years -- Here's the Last One

(4) Comments | Posted May 11, 2010 | 3:58 PM

When I first pitched a column to the editor of a gay newspaper in Chicago, I was expecting to write some short, snappy, girl-around-town pieces for a year or two.

I thought I'd write about what was going on in the bars, in the conference rooms - I'd pass...

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Why Gay Marriage Is Not Like Abortion

(17) Comments | Posted January 25, 2010 | 10:18 PM

Gay marriage is not like abortion.

This might seem obvious, but in fact, gay marriage is compared to abortion a lot.

People lump gay marriage in the same polarizing issue category as abortion and gun control all the time. It's one of the issues, it seems, that defines someone as...

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How Adam Lambert Is Hurting Gay Marriage

(146) Comments | Posted November 24, 2009 | 12:38 PM

Yes, Adam Lambert. You’re right.

Hiphop artists and women get away with salacious performances all the time without an uproar. Of course, there was that famous Madonna-and-Britney kiss that caused a stir, but that was likely because the artists were – well, Madonna and Britney.

And yes, Adam Lambert, your...

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Gays Boycott the Democrats - Finally

(82) Comments | Posted November 10, 2009 | 8:29 AM

President Barack Obama was AWOL when it came to the marriage vote in Maine and the partnership vote in Washington.

The DNC was worse, actively working against us by sending out an email to Maine Democrats asking them to campaign for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine -- instead of asking...

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Lesbian Couple, Straight Wedding: How Gay Marriage Changes Everything

(0) Comments | Posted November 2, 2009 | 12:52 PM

 It’s sometimes tough to measure progress, personal or political. Our lives are lived slowly, day by day, and so change can seem incremental. Or impossible.

But a lot of difference can be made in a decade.

About 10 years ago, I went to my dad’s second wedding. It was the...

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The Episcopal Clergy Vote is an Important One for Gays

(10) Comments | Posted July 16, 2009 | 10:57 AM

It doesn't matter if you attend religious services weekly or if you have fallen away, if you're atheist or agnostic, if you think religion is the opiate of the people or the road to peace - established religion in America is an important force.

So when the bishops...

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A City Approves of Lesbians in Love

(3) Comments | Posted July 15, 2009 | 5:10 PM

My girlfriend Jenny and I were standing on a subway platform in Harlem. She had flown in from Chicago and had just gotten off a bus from LaGuardia - I was coming home from work in Times Square.

We waited for the train, facing each other, holding hands, talking, kissing...

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Gay Benefits Call With Berry Reveals...Very Little

(3) Comments | Posted June 17, 2009 | 4:23 PM

In advance of President Obama's remarks this afternoon on extending limited benefits to gay federal workers, Director of Personnel Management John Berry spoke to the press and said....very little.

He seemed to be reading from a brief, prepared statement that recapped what we already know: OPM investigated which benefits could...

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Where was Obama on Ill. civil unions?

(3) Comments | Posted June 3, 2009 | 9:29 AM

The Pantagraph reports that Illinois' civil unions bill, after passing a state House committee, was left to languish at the end of the session.

The bill is still alive, if barely: it can be passed anytime in the next two years.

It doesn't really surprise me that the...

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Stonewall, Prop 8 and Gay Pride

(1) Comments | Posted June 2, 2009 | 3:26 PM

Years from now, Proposition 8 is going to be thought of as the tragedy that sparked a revolution.

Gays and lesbians might find the pattern familiar: Stonewall, 40 years ago this month, remembered annually in Gay Pride celebrations around the country; AIDS 25 years ago. It has always been the...

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Some Churches Support Gay Rights

(5) Comments | Posted May 23, 2009 | 2:30 PM

We have this idea in the gay community that Christianity is against us.

We think that every clergy member everywhere is combing the Bible on Saturday nights, trying to find new ways of convincing their congregations the next morning that gays and lesbians are not equal citizens,...

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Gay Graduates and the New American Dream

(7) Comments | Posted May 19, 2009 | 1:42 PM

Hello Gay Graduate,

You sure are in a bitter time to be thrust out of the womb of higher education. When I graduated college 15 years ago, America was in a golden decade. Five years before, the Berlin Wall had come down, giving us a new sense of security. We...

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