Making a Case for Marriage
Book round-up of recent books about same-sex
marraige.
Making a
Case for Marriage
By Seth J.
Bookey
01 April
2005
Lambda Book
Report
Volume 13;
Issue 9/10; ISSN:
10489487
Making
a Case for
Marriage
2004
brought same-sex unions into the headlines, and onto the
bookshelves.
It
seemed like every day there was a new report from a new corner of the country.
Following the decision in Massachusetts to give full marriage rights to gay and
lesbian couples, suddenly local politicians followed the San Francisco mayor's
lead and in other locations, like Asbury Park, N.J., people started showing up
at city hall to ask for a marriage
license.
Not
surprisingly, the issue has translated to a ton of books as well, covering
everything from people's personal opinions to legal analysis. And all during an
election year. Unfortunately, even though an anti-marriage amendment didn't make
it through Congress (yet), many states did enact their own "protection of
marriage" by banning gay marriages via popular vote. And yet, the gay marriage
question keeps popping up, most recently in New York City, where a judge likened
the denial of same-gender marriage to the denial of interracial marriage, which
was finally struck down in the
1960s.
Until
recently, one of the most notable gay marriage book tides was Same-Sex Marriage
Pro and Con: A Reader, edited by Andrew Sullivan (and recently reissued by
Vintage Books), which came on the heels of the trials in Hawaii and the infamous
DOMA legislation ratified by Congress and President
Clinton.
Since
then, numerous tides have come out, many in favor of gay marriage but also
against. There's Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution; Gay Marriage: Why It Is
Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America; Civil Wars: A Battle
for Gay Marriage; Same-Sex Marriage?: A Christian Ethical Analysis; and Why
Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry as just a
few examples of what's out there. But there's also What's Wrong -with Same-Sex
Marriage; Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage and Parenting;
and the most scare-mongering tide yet, Same Sex Marriage: Putting Every
Household at Risk. I think the only title I didn't see while researching this
article was Why Satan Adores Same-Sex Anti-Christ
Unions.
Below
are just six of the books on die pro side. It's not always clear for whom these
books are intended, but with the many outrageous and titles out there, it's good
that there's some balance. Of course, there are many queers who are not all that
thrilled about marriage, and these books cover some of those sentiments as well,
But as Andrew Sullivan pointed out in 1997 during a personal appearance in New
York, "You can't be against gay marriage because it doesn't exist." Well,
flash-forward to 2005 and one state does have it, another has civil unions
(Vermont) and New Jersey enacted strong domestic partnership laws last year as
well.
It's an
important issue. Each state is in charge of its own marriage laws; straight
people married legally in one state are recognized as married in all states, and
internationally-even if the couple had to go out of their home state to legally
marry (e.g., underage here is not underage over the border). But what happens if
you're gay and married in Massachusetts, but move to Pennsylvania? It's clearly
an issue whose interstate nuances are just beginning to become
complex.
There
are other good reasons for queers to read these books-to bone up on the facts
and keep up with "the argument" and maybe even give some of these books to die
more open but unconvinced straight friends we have out there. Considering the
overwhelming anti-gay forces that abound, keeping informed means being "well
armed" in this latest iteration of the culture
wars.
I Do/I
Don't: Queers on
Marriage
Edited by
Greg Wharton and Ian
Philips
Suspect
Thoughts Press
ISBN
0-9746388-7-0
PB,
$16.95,
382pp.
Who
better to comment on the prospect of marriage equality for gays and lesbians...
than gays and lesbians? This collection of essays, treatises and poems runs the
gamut from pro to con and many positions in between. There are scores of
contributions, some of which have been published
elsewhere.
Well-known
and unknown queer writers appear in these pages, some of which include: Dorothy
Allison, Keith Boykin, Michael Bronski, Margaret Cho, rabbi Steven Greenberg,
Michael Luongo, Tim Miller, Sarah Schulman, Carmen Vasquez, and Judy Weider, and
many others. The essays are brief, and alphabetically arranged, making it easy
both to pick up and put down, and to find favorite
authors.
Legalizing
Gay Marriage
By
Michael Mello
Temple
University Press
ISBN
1-59213-079-8
PB,
$22.95, 337
pp.
Michael
Mello, a professor of law at Vermont Law School, looks at how the Baker decision
in that New England state-which created civil unions for gay and lesbian
couples-became a preview of "things to come" for a national debate on gay
marriage. Last year, that debate culminated in legalization of gay marriage in
Massachusetts; spontaneous, but illegal, gay marriages on the municipal level in
San Francisco, New Paltz, N.Y., and other places; and the proposal of amending
the United States Constitution to make same-sex marriage
illegal.
Mello
looks at die decision, its being upheld by the Vermont State Supreme Court, the
backlash against gays and lesbians, and complaints about civil unions being a
"separate but equal marriage
substitute."
Mello
chronicles the considerable, religious-toned objections to the decision and the
various worries about "society disintegrating," as well as all the legal
wrangling that led to Vermont being the first state to legalize same-sex civil
unions. Mello contends that gays, being a "despised minority," are in need of
the law's
protection.
The
M Word: Writers on Same-Sex
Marriage
Edited by
Kathy Pories
Algonquin
Books of Chapel
Hill
ISBN
1-56512-454-5
PB,
$12.95, 191
pp.
This slim
volume of personal essays about same-sex marriage includes some leading authors
like David Leavitt, Stacey D'Erasmo, Alexander Chee, Jim Grimsley and Wendy
McClure. The essays are current as of the Massachusetts decision and George W
Bush's objections to it, but the authors reach back into their own experiences
as well. Algonquin editor Pories explains, in her preface, how reading about
same-sex marriage in the newspapers was somehow lacking, and she wanted "writers
considering it thoughtfully, explaining to me the
nuances."
Same-Sex
Marriage: The Personal and the
Political
By Kathleen
A. Lahey and Kevin
Alderson
Insomniac
Press
ISBN
1-894663-63-2
PB,
$16.95, 381
pp.
Personal
interviews and legal history are used to investigate how gay marriage laws have
been won in places like Ontario and Quebec, and ultimately Canada itself. The
book's interviews with litigants wanting to marry use behind-the-scenes stories
to round out the legal decisions that have come into being. These interviews not
only give depth to the personal relationships, but also show how real gay people
deal with other people's reactions to their marriages, and to the various myths
and maxims leveled against them by society, such as "are gays trying to become
straight?"
Kathleen
Lahey is the lawyer who represented three couples in British Columbia pursuing
marriage rights, and Kevin Alderson is an assistant professor of counseling
psychology at the University of Calgary; he has counseled hundreds of gay men
and
lesbians.
Same-Sex
Marriage in the United States: Focus on the
Facts
By Sean
Cahill
Lexington
Books
ISBN
0-7391-0882-4
PB,
$12.95,
159pp.
This
volume by Cahill, director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force, takes a factual approach to an issue that polarized the
nation last year. He distinguishes the differences between domestic
partnerships, civil unions and civil marriage, and then shows statistical data
that relates to both sides of the issue. One thing the numbers show is that the
"rich gay playboy" is a myth-many gay men earn far less than their straight
counterparts. The book's wide margins also give the author an opportunity to
toss in some visual "sound bytes," such as "In 2004, approximately 20 same-sex
surviving partners of people killed in 9/11 are still awaiting a decision from
the federal fund." The volume also presents data in map form-some national,
showing state-by-state anti-marriage and anti-parenting laws, and some even more
specific, like one showing changing concentrations of samesex couples in
Missouri, county by county. And the book includes profiles of two surviving
partners who were denied the rights a legally married partner would have had
without
trouble.
Why
Marriage?: The History Shaping Today's Debate Over Gay
Equality
By George
Chauncey
Basic
Books
ISBN
0-465-00957-3
HB,
$22.00, 200
pp.
George
Chauncey, author of the award-winning Gay New York, turns his historical
perspective and observation toward gay marriage during the time the issue made
daily headlines, 2003-2004. Chauncey looks at the reasons for the current
groundswell demanding gay marriage, as well as the history behind those against
it. He chronicles changes in marriage itself, plus a boom in gay and lesbian
parenting, and the discrimination facing these
families.
In the
chapter "Why Marriage Became a Goal," Chauncey looks at attitudes about gay
marriage from the beginning of the movement, as well as particular cases, like
that of Sharon Kowalski, whose hospitalization caused the involuntary separation
of her and her partner at the hands of her parents-something that wouldn't have
happened if they were legally married. As always, Chauncey's work is well
researched and documented. More importantly, understanding the past more fully
helps us understand the present as
well.
Bookey
reviews several books including Same-Sex Marriage Pro and Con: A Reader edited
by Andrew Sullivan, Legalizing Gay Marriage by Michael Mello, and The M Word:
Writers on Same-Sex Marriage edited by Kathy
Pories.
Copyright
Lambda Rising Apr/May 2005 | Seth Bookey is a freelance writer based in New York
City.
Posted: Fri - April 1, 2005 at 12:36 AM