Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law (Queer Ideas)

Part of the Queer Ideas series, edited by Michael Bronski

A persuasive argument for why married couples, gay or straight, should not receive special rights denied to other families

Nancy Polikoff asserts that, in American law, marriage is the dividing line between those relationships that matter and those that don’t. A woman married to a man for nine months receives Social Security benefits when he dies; a woman living for nineteen years with a man or woman to whom she isn’t married receives no government support.

Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage reframes the family-rights debate by arguing that marriage should not bestow special legal privileges upon couples because people, both heterosexual and LGBT, live in a variety of relationships?including unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, single-parent households, extended biological family units, and myriad other familial configurations. These relationships, like marriage, are about building and sustaining economic and emotional interdependence and nurturing the next generation. Polikoff shows how the law can value all families, and why it must.

?Polikoff wades through legislation and legalese with style and substance, plus a touch of flair. Impeccably researched, Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage offers an evocative read that takes in the full breadth of the issues affecting marriage and avoids pedantry while remaining persuasive.” ?Publishers Weekly

?Polikoff’s argument is provocative, illuminating, and original.” ?John D’Emilio, author of Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin

In their current demands, Blankenhorn points out, gay and lesbian leaders are not asking for marriage with an adjective in front of it, but marriage itself. Therefore, what marriage is and why it matters is what this debate is all about. What exactly is this institution to which gay and lesbian activists are seeking access? Why do we have it in the first place? Where did it come from? What is it for? How is it changing? These are some of the hard questions The Future of Marriage confronts.