scholarly journals The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage: Tracing the Issue through Congress and the Courts

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Caleb Andrew Temple

The issue of same-sex marriage is currently a topic of fierce debate in this country. To help policymakers, practitioners, and members of the American public better understand both the topic and the direction of the debate, this article gives a brief history of the issue, describes some significant legislative and legal developments, and offers some comments on the ways in which the outcome of this debate could potentially affect federal policy.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Frank K. UPHAM

Abstract This article examines why Japan is a prominent exception to the global trend towards recognition of same-sex marriage and evaluates the prospects for change. It does so through an analysis of five cases brought on Valentine's Day – 14 February 2019. Unlike many jurisdictions where religious opposition to same-sex relationships has been intense and sometimes violent, Japan has a history of relative tolerance towards LGBT individuals. Nonetheless, despite the creation of civil partnership ordinances in some localities, national legislation seems unlikely, and a group of lawyers filed suit in five district courts across Japan. The litigation was brought under the State Redress Act and is based on tort rather than directly on constitutional doctrine. It claims that marriage equality is constitutionally required and that the failure of the government to recognize same-sex marriage constitutes a tort that has harmed the LGB plaintiffs and entitles them to compensation. This article analyzes the nature of the cause of action founded on the State Redress Act, and examines the arguments, which are based more on the plaintiffs’ suffering than on their desire for self-expression. Subsequently, it presents and evaluates the possible outcomes


Sexualities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Thomas ◽  
Hannah McCann ◽  
Geraldine Fela

In December 2017, Australia legalized same-sex marriage (SSM), following a 13-year ban and a drawn-out postal survey on marriage equality that saw campaigners mobilize for a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-binding poll. Through a discourse analysis of the Yes and No campaigns’ television and online video advertisements, we demonstrate how the Yes campaign was symptomatic of what we call a ‘post-liberation’ approach that saw SSM as the last major hurdle for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) politics. While the No campaign linked SSM to gender fluidity, transgender identity, and sex education programmes, in contrast the Yes campaign limited itself to narratives around love and marriage. In not attending to the link between sex, gender and sexuality, the Yes campaign narrowed the possibilities of the debate, preserving existing White heteronormative expectations of gender and sexuality. We contrast the debate that unfolded during the postal survey to the Australian Gay Liberation movement of the 1970s, the latter of which was able to successfully and radically challenge similarly homophobic campaigns. Rather than relying on ‘palatable’ or mainstream ideas of equality, love and fairness, Gay Liberation in Australia embraced the radical potential of LGBTIQ activism and presented a utopian, optimistic vision of a transformed future. Here we suggest that we can learn from the history of campaigns around sexuality, to understand what was ‘won’ in the SSM debate, and to better develop strategies for change in the future.


1993 ◽  
Vol 79 (7) ◽  
pp. 1419 ◽  
Author(s):  
William N. Eskridge

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-404
Author(s):  
Ilana Eloit

This article examines the ways in which 1970s French feminists who participated in the Women’s Liberation Movement (Mouvement de libération des femmes – MLF) wielded the spectre of lesbianism as an American idiosyncrasy to counteract the politicisation of lesbianism in France. It argues that the erasure of lesbian difference from the domain of French feminism was a necessary condition for making ‘woman’ an amenable subject for incorporation into the abstract unity of the French nation, wherein heterosexuality is conceived as a democratic crucible where men and women harmoniously come together and differences are deemed divisive. Looking at the history of feminism from the standpoint of a lesbian perspective reveals unforeseen continuities between French ‘feminist’ and ‘anti-feminist’ genealogies insofar as they rest on common heterosexual and racial foundations. Finally, the article demonstrates that the alleged un-Frenchness ascribed to the word ‘lesbian’ in the 1970s feminist movement spectrally returned in the 1990s when the word ‘gender’ was, in its turn, deemed radically foreign to the French culture by feminist researchers. Fiercely reactionary constituencies against the legalisation of same-sex marriage have more recently taken up this rhetorical weapon against sexual and racial minorities.


Family Law ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 28-120
Author(s):  
Joanna Miles ◽  
Rob George ◽  
Sonia Harris-Short

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing able students with a stand-alone resource. This chapter first considers demographic data on family relationships in England and Wales, and then examines the treatment of ‘trans’ people in this area of family law; and the history of legal recognition of intimate relationships between parties of the same gender, culminating in same-sex marriage and ensuing debates about the future of civil partnership. This is then followed by discussions of status-based relationships (marriage and civil partnership); creating a valid marriage or civil partnership; grounds on which a marriage or civil partnership is void; grounds on which a marriage or civil partnership is voidable; and non-formalized relationships (cohabitants and other ‘family’).


Author(s):  
Maurice Pomerantz

Abstract This article provides an editio princeps and English translation of al-Maqāma al-Hītiyya al-Šīrāziyya by al-Šābb al-Ẓarīf al-Tilimsānī (d. 688/1289) preserved in Berlin MS Wetzstein 1847. The maqāma describes a romantic liaison conducted between an older Mamluk and a younger boy. The analysis considers the various literary forms deployed by the author in the course of the maqāma, such as: an erotic epigram, a love letter, mujūn verse, and a marriage ḫuṭba. The conclusion of the article explores what this work reveals about the history of the maqāma form, language, and truth.


Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1417-1433
Author(s):  
Chris Brickell

Is same-sex marriage a recent outcome of concerted political action, or does it have a much longer history? This article critically examines the historical tensions and complexities around same-sex marriage by focusing on the New Zealand context. It argues that same-sex marriage is not simply a matter of legal provisions, but also reflects shared customs and incipient forms of politics that took hold before the era of marriage equality and have since been further transformed. By offering an overview of the New Zealand situation between the mid-19th century and the present day, this article examines the cultural and political complexities of same-sex marriage in order to tease out the intricate intersections between historical continuities and social change.


1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin A. Seider ◽  
Keith L. Gladstien ◽  
Kenneth K. Kidd

Time of language onset and frequencies of speech and language problems were examined in stutterers and their nonstuttering siblings. These families were grouped according to six characteristics of the index stutterer: sex, recovery or persistence of stuttering, and positive or negative family history of stuttering. Stutterers and their nonstuttering same-sex siblings were found to be distributed identically in early, average, and late categories of language onset. Comparisons of six subgroups of stutterers and their respective nonstuttering siblings showed no significant differences in the number of their reported articulation problems. Stutterers who were reported to be late talkers did not differ from their nonstuttering siblings in the frequency of their articulation problems, but these two groups had significantly higher frequencies of articulation problems than did stutterers who were early or average talkers and their siblings.


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