• ISBN13: 9781400078660
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With same-sex marriage igniting a firestorm of controversy in the press and in the courts, in legislative chambers and in living rooms, Andrew Sullivan, a pioneering voice in the debate, has brought together two thousand years of argument in an anthology of historic inclusiveness and evenhandedness. Among the selections included here:

- The 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in support of same-sex marriage
- Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion and Justice Scalia’s dissent in the 2003 landmark Supreme Court decision striking down anti-sodomy laws
- President George W. Bush’s call for a Federal Marriage Amendment
- John Kerry’s Senate speech urging defeat of the Defense of Marriage Act
- Harvard historian Nancy F. Cott’s testimony before the Vermont House Judiciary Committee
- Reverend Peter J. Gomes on the distinction between civil and religious marriage
- Stanley Kurtz on the politics of gay marriage
- Evan Wolfson on the popularity of the right to marry among lesbians and gay men
- New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks’ conservative case for same-sex marriage
- Excerpts from Genesis, Leviticus, and other essential biblical texts
- Aristophanes’s classic theory of same-sex love, from Plato’s Symposium
- Hannah Arendt on marriage as a fundamental right
- Camille Paglia’s skepticism

Representing the full range of perspectives and the most cogent and arresting arguments, Same-Sex Marriage is essential to a balanced understanding of the most pressing cultural question we face today.At the end of Virtually Normal, Andrew Sullivan called for the legalization of gay and lesbian marriages as a recognition of an individual’s right to enter into a committed relationship with the person he or she loves. Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con is, as the title suggests, a collection of arguments for and against such unions. Sullivan provides little commentary, allowing the various authors gathered here to speak for themselves. No matter which side one supports on this issue, this anthology will enable both an intellectual support of one’s own beliefs and a better, fuller understanding of the contrary position.

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• ISBN13: 9780807044339
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

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The Future of Marriage

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Price: $ 5.15

Will same-sex couples destroy “traditional” marriage, soon to be followed by the collapse of all civilization? That charge has been leveled throughout history whenever the marriage rules change. But marriage, as E. J. Graff shows in this lively, fascinating tour through the history of marriage in the West, has always been a social battleground, its rules constantly shifting to fit each era and economy. The marriage debates have been especially tumultuous for the past hundred and fifty years—in ways that lead directly to today’s debate over whether marriage could mean not just Boy + Girl = Babies, but also Girl + Girl = Love.E.J. Graff had a very personal reason for asking the question in this book’s title: she was married in 1991, but in a ceremony legitimized by neither church nor state. Graff and her dearly beloved, you see, are lesbians. But instead of being dominated by agenda, What Is Marriage For? is a playful and informative study of the institution of wedlock throughout history that will appeal to readers outside of its obvious constituency. Chapter by chapter, Graff looks at the legal, sociological, and anthropological assumptions about money, sex, procreation, tribal affiliation, and the pursuit of personal happiness that underlie the concept of matrimony in Western societies. Her eye for the odd historical footnote is especially striking: we learn, for example, that in ancient Rome, marriage vows were exchanged by the groom and his father-in-law, and that–the assertions of right-wing fundamentalists notwithstanding–families were actually far less stable in the premodern era (where as many as 50 percent of all French children lived with a stepparent) than they are today. Graff’s conclusion? The rules of engagement have fluctuated so wildly over the centuries that the term “traditional marriage” is something of an oxymoron; same-sex unions are but one of the many ways in which marriage has evolved to meet the changing social dynamics of the 20th century. –Patrizia DiLucchio

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The word “samesex” is considered to be a misspelling by the dictionaries of both Google and Microsoft.

This is quite stunning if you consider that the Google Adsense External Keyword Tool indicates that globally while 550,000 people each month search for the two word phrase “samesex marriage,” but, only 135,000 people search for the three word phrase “same sex marriage.”

If you do a search on Google, Yahoo or Bing News, you will see that most journalists, editors and publishers favor using the single word samesex as opposed to the two word phrase same sex.

I believe that Google and Microsoft should update their dictionaries to consider both “same sex” and “samesex” as correct spellings.  Every webmaster and SEO expert knows that Google demotes websites with misspelled words. Without this change, any site promoting same sex marriage as “samesex marriage” will be demoted. With federal marriage laws up for grabs, it seems that this oversight results in an unfair advantage for homophobic groups.   With more than half a million global searches every month for the two word phrase “samesex marriage,” changing these dictionaries seems reasonable.  Not recognizing both forms penalizes users seeking marriage equality for LGBT people.

This situation also translates to support of Prop 8 by companies that have samesex domestic partnership benefits.   I would be very surprised if this is purposeful support of Prop 8 by these companies.   Hopefully, they simply overlooked the wording trend and its potentially serious consequences.

Regardless of how this came to be, I believe in equality and hope that this article is seen by people who have the authority to have these dictionaries and algorithms updated to support equality.

If you feel the same way, please Tweet, Digg, Delicious,Buzz bookmark this article, post a link on leading social sites like Facebook, Linkedin  in the hope that it will reach the executives who can make this change happen.  I hope that, as a community straight or gay, we can all help in bringing this problem to light with positive change as the result. 
 

Data pulled from Google Adsense External Keyword Tool – October 11^th,2010

Global Searches
550,000 Samesex Marriage (Two Words)
135,000 Same Sex Marriage (Three Words)

Local Searches
368,000 Samesex Marriage(Two Words)
90,500 Same Sex Marriage (Three Words)

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