Irreconciliable Differences

2020 ◽  
pp. 195-220
Author(s):  
Sandra Patton-Imani ◽  
Sandra Patton-Imani
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
News Reports ◽  
State Initiative ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Mothers Of Color ◽  
Simultaneous Election

I consider debates about Proposition 8, a California initiative that proposed banning same-sex marriage in 2008 after it had been legalized earlier that year. I explore family-making narratives of mothers of color in particular, in relation to political debates in news reports and letters to the editor between June and November 2008. Vociferous debate about children as symbols for the future of the nation engaged nationalist language of rights, equality, and “true Americans” on both sides. Sociopolitical fears about how legalizing same-sex marriage would affect children’s education and moral development infused sociopolitical narratives about the dangers of same-sex marriage for the United States. When the state initiative was passed on election night in November 2008, same-sex marriages were declared unlawful in the state. The simultaneous election of Barack Obama raised racial tensions about whose votes tipped which scales. I explore sociopolitical narratives of racial blame in news discussions of the political outcome.

Identity and Values

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
Olivier Roy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
American Society ◽  
Christian Conservatives

This chapter explores the ‘culture wars’ both in Europe and in the United States. In Europe, ‘values’ have probably never before been mentioned so frequently in discourse and political debates as they have since the 2000s. This trend actually dates to the American ‘culture wars’, which have been going on since the 1970s. The expression ‘culture wars’ denotes the war on values within American society, a war pitting liberal culture, which stands against discrimination and in favour of abortion rights, gun control, and some form of social security, against a ‘Christian right’ led by evangelical Protestants in the southern United States, whose core political issues are the fight against abortion and same-sex marriage, and who oppose gun control, universal health care, immigration, and affirmative action. Things are more complex in Europe because the two fronts do not coincide. In the debate on values, the internal front pits Christian conservatives against secularists of all persuasions, liberals and populists alike; the main issues revolve around abortion and same-sex marriage. The external front, on the other hand, puts the idea of ‘Europe’ in opposition to Islam: the issue is concerned with the cultural antagonism between Muslim immigrants and Europeans and with European societies' fear of becoming ‘Islamized’.

Letters to the Editor

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 918-919
Author(s):  
AIMS C. MCGUINNESS
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
Mild Disease ◽  
The Individual

I certainly agree with Dr. Dietrich that Asian influenza thus far has been a mild disease and not too serious a problem for the individual. Dr. Burney has pointed this out on a number of occasions, as, for example, in his remarks before the State and Territorial Health Officers on August 27. I agree, too, that the availability of antibiotics to deal with secondary bacterial infections should, to a great extent, minimize the severity of any epidemic in the United States.

Negotiating American Indian Inclusion: Sovereignty, Same-Sex Marriage, and Sexual Minorities in Indian Country

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Valerie Lambert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Indian ◽  
American Indians ◽  
The United States ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Domestic Relations ◽  
Indian Country ◽  
Marriage Laws ◽  
And Gender

American Indians are often overlooked in the story of the struggle for marriage equality in the United States. Using anthropological approaches, this article synthesizes and extends scholarly knowledge about Native participation in this struggle. With sovereign rights to control their own domestic relations, tribes have been actively revising their marriage laws, laws that reflect the range of reservation climates for sexual and gender-identity minorities. Debates in Indian Country over the rights of these minorities and over queering marriage bring to the fore issues that help define the distinctiveness of Native participation in the movement. These include issues of “tradition,” “culture,” and Christianity.

scholarly journals Moving a Mountain: The Extraordinary Trajectory of Same-Sex Marriage Approval in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311772765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Election Studies

Most public opinion attitudes in the United States are reasonably stable over time. Using data from the General Social Survey and the American National Election Studies, I quantify typical change rates across all attitudes. I quantify the extent to which change in same-sex marriage approval (and liberalization in attitudes toward gay rights in general) are among a small set of rapid changing outliers in surveyed public opinions. No measured public opinion attitude in the United States has changed more and more quickly than same-sex marriage. I use survey data from Newsweek to illustrate the rapid increase in the 1980s and 1990s in Americans who had friends or family who they knew to be gay or lesbian and demonstrate how contact with out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians was influential. I discuss several potential historical and social movement theory explanations for the rapid liberalization of attitudes toward gay rights in the United States, including the surprising influence of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

Modern Day Moabites: The Bible and the Debate About Same-Sex Marriage

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 442-475
Author(s):  
Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
King David ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religious Left ◽  
To Come

AbstractWith the debate about same-sex marriage raging in the United States, this paper asks whether the canonical scriptures of Judaism and Christianity offer any justification for blessing same-sex unions. It looks to the ways that the Bible is used by proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage. It analyzes the hermeneutics of the religious left and the religious right, particularly as they grapple with the "clobber texts" of Lev. 18:22 and 20:13. It then turns to the biblical book of Ruth, which critic J. Hillis Miller describes as having "been alienated from itself, translated from itself" through new uses. The paper puts the book of Ruth to yet another new use/misprision, using it as a prooftext to support same-sex marriage. The book has already been upheld by lesbian readers of scripture because of the intimate relationship between the protagonists, Ruth and Naomi, but this paper "misreads" the text differently. Ruth describes how a marriage made between an Israelite and a Moabite brings about the line of King David, one of the most important figures in the Bible and the man from whose line the Messiah is expected to come. The biblical law, however, is unequivocal: Moabites are not permitted to enter into the community of Israel. Juxtaposing the levitical laws (ostensibly) prohibiting homosexuality with those banning Moabites from Israel, this paper argues that the religious left could hold up the book of Ruth as a biblical model for allowing marriage that seems explicitly forbidden by biblical law.

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