Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage

Nancy D. PolikoffBeyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the LawPart of the Queer Ideas series, edited by Michael BronskiA persuasive argument for why married couples, gay or straight, should not receive special rights denied to other familiesThe problem with American law, Nancy Polikoff asserts, is that marriage is the dividing line between those relationships that matter and those that don’t. A woman married to a man for nine months is entitled to Social Security survivor’s benefits when he dies; a woman living for nineteen years with a man or woman to whom she isn’t married is left without government support.Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage grapples with a pressing topic — the fight for marriage equality — but significantly moves the discussion forward by focusing on the larger social and political issues of marriage and family law. Polikoff 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. In Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage, Polikoff shows how the law can value all families, and why it must.