Same Sex Marriage Context And Lesbian Identity

This book shows how the first lesbians to marry in the United States are using or avoiding the word wife at this historic juncture when the definition of marriage is undergoing a shift. It will interest the LGBTQ community and its allies, political activists, feminists, and scholars of sociology, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and gender.

As the fight for same-sex marriage rages across the United States and lesbian and gay couples rush to marriage license counters, the goal of marriage is still fiercely questioned within the LGBT movement. Rarely has an objective so central to a social movement’s political agenda been so controversial within the movement itself. While antigay forces work to restrict marriage to one man and one woman, lesbian and gay activists are passionately arguing about the desirability, viability, and social consequences of same-sex marriage. The Marrying Kind? is the first book to draw on empirical research to examine these debates and how they are affecting marriage equality campaigns. The essays in this volume analyze the rhetoric, strategies, and makeup of the LGBT social movement organizations pushing for same-sex marriage, and address the dire predictions of some LGBT commentators that same-sex marriage will spell the end of queer identity and community. Case studies from California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Canada illuminate the complicated politics of same-sex marriage, making clear that the current disagreements among LGBT activists over whether marriage is conforming or transformative are far too simplistic. Instead, the impact of the marriage equality movement is complex and often contradictory, neither fully assimilationist nor fully oppositional. Contributors: Ellen Ann Andersen, U of Vermont; Mary C. Burke, U of Vermont; Adam Isaiah Green, U of Toronto; Melanie Heath, McMaster U, Ontario; Kathleen E. Hull, U of Minnesota; Katrina Kimport, U of California, San Francisco; Jeffrey Kosbie; Katie Oliviero, U of Colorado, Boulder; Kristine A. Olsen; Timothy A. Ortyl; Arlene Stein, Rutgers U; Amy L. Stone, Trinity U; Nella Van Dyke, U of California, Merced.

A vibrant, growing, and highly visible set of female identities has emerged in Thailand known as tom and dee. A "tom" (from "tomboy") refers to a masculine woman who is sexually involved with a feminine partner, or "dee" (from "lady"). The patterning of female same-sex relationships into masculine and feminine pairs, coupled with the use of English derived terms to refer to them, is found throughout East and Southeast Asia. Have the forces of capitalism facilitated the dissemination of Western-style gay and lesbian identities throughout the developing world as some theories of transnationalism suggest? Is the emergence of toms and dees over the past twenty-five years a sign that this has occurred in Thailand? Megan Sinnott engages these issues by examining the local culture and historical context of female same-sex eroticism and female masculinity in Thailand. Drawing on a broad spectrum of anthropological literature, Sinnott situates Thai tom and dee subculture within the global trend of increasingly hybridized sexual and gender identities.

Kathleen Hull provides an exploration of the cultural practices around same-sex marriage, as well as the legal battle for recognition. She shows how couples use marriage-related cultural practices, such as public commitment rituals, to assert the realityof their commitments despite lack of legal recognition.

Based on extensive couple and individual interviews with young same sex couples who have legally formalized their relationships, this book argues that same sex marriages as they are lived need to be understood in terms of interlinked developments in lesbian and gay life, heterosexual relationships and in personal life.

A comprehensive account of the discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families confront and a look at how policy changes could make them more secure

There is massive public interest in same-sex marriage, a controversial topic that is rarely out of the media. This book investigates the extent to which legalizing same-sex marriage can contribute to ending the discrimination and social stigma faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women (LGBT) in the Western world. This issue breaks down into several further questions: can marriage equality be defended without reinforcing the idea that marriage is the most/only valuable form of intimate relationship? Can marriage equality be defended without further marginalizing non-conforming LGBT people? What kind of equality should LGBT people strive for? What critical agency might they lose when this equality is achieved? What institutional legacies should we embrace? The book focuses on human rights arguments supporting same-sex marriage and questions whether they are likely to both justify legal change and encourage shifts in the sociopolitical reception of LGBT people. After critically analyzing various arguments in favor of same-sex marriage, the author puts forward a justification that allows for marriage equality and does not result in the assimilation of queer identities into heteronormative identity.

Ethnicity, culture, and sexual orientation are salient aspects of human identity. While diversity adds richness to the threads of our human tapestry, minorities often feel vulnerable with open disclosure and retreat from exposures they fear could leave them in jeopardy. This is especially so with the lesbian and gay community. Under the skilled editorship of Beverly Greene, Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Among Lesbians and Gay Men explores a broad range of culture-related topics specific to the experience of this populationùand is courageously presented by an outstanding, diverse group of contributors. Along with empirical, clinical, and theoretical discussions, the inclusion of personal narrative offers poignant insight into additional complexities, pressures, and losses that lesbians and gay men must cope with in a world that often handles diversity with the closed fist of bigotry. Academics, researchers, students, and the interested lay reader will find Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Among Lesbians and Gay Men both accessible and engaging. The volume is ideal for courses in psychology, social psychology, gender studies, sociology, human services, interpersonal violence, and ethnic studies.