John Corvino

John Corvino (born 1969) is an American author, lecturer, and professor of philosophy at Wayne State University.

Corvino graduated from Chaminade High School, an all-boys Catholic School, in 1987. Corvino attended St. John's University in New York City, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in 1990. He earned his PhD in philosophy at University of Texas at Austin in 1998.

Corvino is the chair of the Department of Philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He began teaching there in 1998 and received tenure in 2007. His foci are ethics, applied ethics, and early modern philosophy. Other areas of philosophy in which he has concentrated are the philosophy of religion, social philosophy, and political philosophy. His dissertation involved David Hume, and Corvino has taught classes focusing on Hume as well as British empiricism.

Corvino—who is openly gay—has written, debated and lectured extensively on gay rights, and frequently debates with opponents of same-sex marriage including Maggie Gallagher, the former head of the National Organization for Marriage, and Glenn Stanton from the Christian conservative campaigning group Focus on the Family. Corvino argues that spirited dialogue and debate with opponents of homosexuality and same-sex marriage is essential to convince the wider American public of both the merits of same-sex marriage and the moral acceptability of homosexuality. Corvino co-authored a book Debating Same Sex Marriage with Gallagher, and has argued that gay rights activists should avoid referring to opponents of gay rights as "bigots", calling it a "conversation-stopper". For quite a number of years, Corvino wrote a column for Between the Lines, and later 365gay.com and the online Independent Gay Forum, titled "The Gay Moralist".

Corvino has also written on business ethics, and has contributed to many academic journals and periodicals, including Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Southwest Philosophy Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, Philosophical Quarterly, and Ethics.

Reviewing Corvino's Same Sex in the Times Literary Supplement, libertarian Nigel Ashford commented that "the tone of the book—of reason and logic, respect for opponents and willingness to engage in intellectual combat—is set by Corvino himself in his examination of the case against homosexuality, and by the inclusion of a rebuttal of his own arguments."

Among the other publications which reviewed Corvino's Same Sex is Washington Post Book World.

• Corvino, John. What's Wrong With Homosexuality?, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-985631-2
• Corvino, John; Gallagher, Maggie. Debating Same-Sex Marriage, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-19-975631-5
• Corvino, John. (as editor and contributor) Same Sex: Debating the Ethics, Science, and Culture of Homosexuality, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland), 1997. ISBN 0-8476-8482-2
• Corvino, John. “How Not to Argue for Gay Rights,” in Juha Räikkä, ed., Do We Need Minority Rights?: Conceptual Issues, Kluwer Law International, 1996, pp. 215–235.

• Do We Need Minority Rights?, The Philosophy of Sex and Remapping the Humanities: Identity, Memory, Community, and (post)Modernity, Wayne State University Press, 2004.

• What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?, Paradise Valley Media, 2008.

• President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Wayne State University: 2006
• Spirit of Detroit Award, Detroit City Council: 2004
• College of Liberal Arts Teaching Award, Wayne State University: May 1999
• Departmental Teaching Award, The University of Texas at Austin: Spring 1996, Fall 1996, Spring 1997