Symposium: Updating the lgbt intracommunity debate over same-sex marriage

Rutgers Law Review

Volumn 61, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 493-505

  Ball, Carlos A ^a  

^a Lewis and Clark Law School   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 68149156131     PISSN: 00360465     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (85)

1. David L. Chambers, Couples: Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership, in CREATING CHANGE: SEXUALITY, PUBLIC POLICY, AND CIVIL RIGHTS 281, 290 (John D'Emilio et al. eds., 2000).
2. Thomas Stoddard, Why Gay People Should Seek the Right to Marry, OUT/LOOK, Fall 1989, at 9, reprinted in WILLIAM B. RUBENSTEIN, CARLOS A. BALL & JANE S. SCHACTER, CASES AND MATERIALS ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND THE LAW 678 (3d ed. 2008);
3. Paula Ettelbrick, Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?, OUT/LOOK, Fall 1989, at 14, reprinted in RUBENSTEIN ET AL., supra, at 683.
4. On the political backlash engendered by the gay rights movement's pursuit of same-sex marriage through the courts, see Carlos A. Ball, The Backlash Thesis and Same-Sex Marriage: Learning from Brown v. Board of Education and Its Aftermath, 14 WM. & MARY BILL RTS. J. 1493(2006) and Michael J. Klarman, Brown and Lawrence (and Goodridge), 104 MICH. L. REV. 431(2005).
5. See Chambers, supra note 1.
6. Id. at 283.
7. Id. (quoting Suzanne Sherman, Lesbian and Gay Marriage, ADVOCATE, Aug. 1970, at 7).
8. Id. at 283-88.
9. In some instances, sympathetic clerks did issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In March, 1975, for example, the county clerk in Boulder, Colorado, issued marriage licenses "to no fewer than six same-sex couples... [before] the state attorney general put a stop to the Boulder County experiment in same-sex marriage." WILLIAM N. ESKRDIGE, JR., THE CASE FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: FROM SEXUAL LIBERTY TO CIVILIZED COMMITMENT 55(1996). In that same year, Washington, D. C. Councilman Arrington Dixon introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, a proposal that was enthusiastically supported by the Gay Activists Alliance and longtime gay activist Frank Kameny. Id. The bill, however, created a furor and was vigorously opposed by the Catholic Church and several Baptist churches, leading Dixon to withdraw it. Id.
10. Jones v. Hallahan, 501 S. W.2d 588 (Ky. 1973);
11. Baker v. Nelson, 191 N. W.2d 185 (Minn. 1971);
12. Singer v. Hara, 522 P.2d 1187 (Wash. Ct. App. 1974).
13. Chambers, supra note 1, at 288.
14. Id.
15. See Baehr v. Lewin, 852 P.2d 44 (Haw. 1993).
16. NANCY D. POLIKOFF, BEYOND (STRAIGHT AND GAY) MARRIAGE: VALUING ALL FAMILIES UNDER THE LAW (2008).
17. Id. at 5.
18. Id.
19. Id. at 6.
20. Id. at 49-50;
21. David Link, California's Quiet Revolution, INDEP. GAY FORUM, Sept. 24, 2008, http://indegayforum.org/news/ printer/31629.html.
22. POLIKOFF, supra note 13, at 49.
23. Chambers, supra note 1, at 300.
24. See supra note 1 and accompanying text.
25. See Baehr v. Lewin, 852 P.2d 44 (Haw. 1993). As Chambers notes, the Hawaii Supreme Court's opinion in Baehr "caught [gay rights lawyers] by surprise, [leading them] to develop an entirely new set of strategies." Chambers, supra note 1, at 290.
26. David W. Dunlap, Thomas Stoddard, 48, Dies; An Advocate of Gay Rights, N. Y. TIMES, Feb. 14, 1997, at B6.
27. Robert Murphy, Fear of Disclosure, POZ, Oct.-Nov. 1995, available at http://www.poz.com/articles/259-1851.shtml.
28. Dunlap, supra note 22.
29. Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U. S. 186(1986) (upholding the constitutionality of sodomy statutes).
30. See, e.g., LARRY KRAMER, THE NORMAL HEART (1985).
31. Dunlap, supra note 22.
32. Id.
33. See Stoddard, supra note 2. Stoddard and Ettelbrick's essays appeared under the heading "Gay Marriage: A Must or a Bust?" RUBENSTEIN ET AL., supra note 2, at 678.
34. Stoddard, supra note 2, at 679.
35. Id.
36. Id. at 679-81.
37. Id. at 681.
38. Ettelbrick made this point in her essay when she noted that "[t]hose closer to the norm or to power in this country are more likely to see marriage as a principle of freedom or equality. Those who are more acceptable to the mainstream because of race, gender, and economic status are more likely to want the right to marry." Ettelbrick, supra note 2, at 686.
39. Stoddard, supra note 2, at 681.
40. Id.
41. Id.
42. Id.
43. Id. at 682.
44. Id.
45. Id.
46. Id. at 682-83.
47. Id.
48. Id. at 683.
49. Id.
50. Id.
51. Ettelbrick, supra note 2.
52. See Alum Delivers 21st Annual I. Goodman Cohen Lecture, WAYNE LAW. (Wayne St. Univ. Law Sch., Detroit, Mich.), Spring 2006, at 4, available at http://law.wayne.edu/pdf/wayne-lawyer-2006.pdf; Guide to the Paula L. Ettelbrick Papers, 1986-1993(2003), http://rmc.library. cornell.edu/ead/htmldocs/RMM07644.html.
53. See Penny Mickelbury, Long-Time Lesbian Activist Leads Int'l Rights Group, WASH. BLADE, Oct. 10, 2003, at 17.
54. Ettelbrick's papers, covering her Lambda years, are available at the Cornell University Library. See Guide to the Paula L. Ettelbrick Papers, 1986-1993, supra note 48.
55. Mickelbury, supra note 49.
56. Ettelbrick, supra note 2, at 684.
57. Id.
58. Id.
59. Id. at 685.
60. Id. at 684.
61. Id. at 685-86.
62. Id.
63. Id. at 687.
64. Id. at 686-87.
65. Id. at 686.
66. Id.
67. Id. at 687.
68. Id. at 687-88.
69. Id. at 688.
70. Id. Ettelbrick later elaborated on her concerns about the gay rights movement's pursuit of same-sex marriage as the primary way of seeking legal recognition of LGBT relationships and families. Paula L. Ettelbrick, Wedlock Alert: A Comment on Lesbian and Gay Family Recognition, 5 J. L. & POL'Y 107, 159-65(1996).
71. Arthur S. Leonard, Going for the Brass Ring: The Case for Same-Sex Marriage, 82 CORNELL L. REV. 572, 579-80(1997) (book review).
72. See, e.g., Steven K. Homer, Against Marriage, 29 HARV. C. R.-C. L. L. REV. 505(1994);
73. Nancy D. Polikoff, We Will Get What We Ask for: Why Legalizing Gay and Lesbian Marriage Will Not "Dismantle the Legal Structure of Gender in Every Marriage," 79 VA. L. REV. 1535, 1535-36(1993).
74. See Baehr v. Lewin, 852 P.2d 44 (Haw. 1993).
75. The lawsuit eventually led the Vermont Supreme Court to require that samesex relationships be afforded all of the rights and benefits available to married couples under state law. Baker v. State, 744 A.2d 864, 867 (Vt. 1999). For accounts of the legal and political battles over the recognition of same-sex relationships in Vermont, see WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE, JR., EQUALITY PRACTICE: CIVIL UNIONS AND THE FUTURE OF GAY RIGHTS (2002), MICHAEL MELLO, LEGALIZING GAY MARRIAGE (2004), and DAVID MOATS, CIVIL WARS: A BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE (2004).
76. Pub. L. No. 104-199, 110 Stat. 2419(1996) (codified at 1 U. S. C § 7 and 28 U. S. C. § 1738C (2006)).
77. Mark Strasser, A Little Older, a Little Wiser, and Still Committed, 61 RUTGERS L. REV. 507(2009).
78. Id. at 514-19.
79. Id. at 517-21.
80. Nancy D. Polikoff, Equality and Justice for Lesbian and Gay Families and Relationships: Marriage Is Still Not the Path, 61 RUTGERS L. REV. 529(2009).
81. Id.
82. Id.
83. Edward Stein, Marriage or Liberation?: Reflections on Two Strategies in the Struggle for Lesbian and Gay Rights and Relationship Recognition, 61 RUTGERS L. REV. 567(2009).
84. Id.
85. Id. at 591-93.