Maggie Gallagher

Margaret Gallagher (born September 14, 1960) is an American writer, socially conservative commentator, and activist.

Maggie Gallagher was born on September 14, 1960, to William Walter Gallagher Sr. and the former Darrilyn Doris Stenz.

She is originally from Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she attended Lakeridge High School.

She has three siblings: Kathleen, William Jr., and Colleen.

Her parents were initially active in their local Catholic parish, but her mother left the Catholic Church when Gallagher was eight years of age.

As a young person, Gallagher was influenced by the works of Ayn Rand and Robert A. Heinlein.

In 1982, Gallagher earned a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale University, where she belonged to the Party of the Right in the Yale Political Union.

Shortly before she was due to graduate, Gallagher became pregnant after a relationship with a fellow party member.

She gave birth to a son out of wedlock.

She initially planned to put the baby up for adoption, but then changed her mind.

Neither of the parents thought that they should marry.

According to Gallagher, her son's father eventually abandoned her and became uninterested in their child.

In her twenties, Gallagher reverted to Catholicism because her experience as a single mother made her consider the necessity of fathers and the linkage of sex to procreation.

Gallagher married Raman Srivastav, a Hindu, in 1993.

They have one son together.

Gallagher attended the premiere reading of 8, Dustin Lance Black's play about the trial surrounding California's Proposition 8, where a depiction of her was performed by Jayne Houdyshell.

She expressed the opinion that most people would find the work "kind of dull".

Early in her career, Gallagher wrote for National Review.

She later worked at the City Journal, a public policy magazine and website.

She wrote a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate from 1995 to 2013 and has written several books.

Gallagher founded the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a small, socially conservative think tank.

She is also a co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an advocacy group which opposes same-sex marriage and other legal recognition of same-sex partnerships; she has served as president and as chairman of the board of NOM.

In 1995, she began writing a nationally syndicated column.

Gallagher joined the Institute for American Values (IAV) in 1996.

She later left IAV and founded the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a conservative think tank whose slogan is "strengthening marriage for a new generation."

She is a signatory of the Manhattan Declaration, a November 2009 ecumenical statement calling on Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters against their religious consciences.

Gallagher opposes abortion and believes that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

She believes that most people who support legal abortion do so reluctantly because they think it is a necessary evil.

Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

Gallagher is opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide such as the Death with Dignity Act or voluntary euthanasia.

She was President of NOM from its founding until 2010, and she remained on the organization's board until August 2011.

As of May 2011, Gallagher was president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy.

Gallagher also co-founded the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

In 2011, Gallagher founded the Culture War Victory Fund and served as the fund's director.

In 2013, the Huffington Post described Gallagher as a "leading gay marriage opponent".

On January 2, 2013, she announced the retirement of her syndicated column, then distributed by Universal Uclick.

Gallagher later worked for the American Principles Project.

In 2017, she was hired at the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship.

She has authored several books.

Gallagher is a Roman Catholic and a social conservative.