Against Marriage

Authors

Steven K. Homer, University of New Mexico - School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1994

Abstract

What is marriage? In the debate surrounding same-sex marriage, the central term has gone undefined. Using the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision in Baehr v. Lewin as a starting point, this Note argues that marriage lacks legal as well as experiential coherence. A series of legal and social moves intended, on the one hand, to preserve the dominance of heterosexuality over gays and lesbians and, on the other, to allow, heterosexuals to escape the dominance of heterosexuality over themselves, has left little conceptual space for marriage. That is, to speak of "extending marriage" to same-sex couples creates the illusion that marriage is a stable, unitary entity. If we look instead to the social and legal pressures by which marriage is simultaneously made and unmade, it becomes clear that marriage is a place-holder for a series of idealized value judgments about our intimate lives.

Publication Title

Harvard Civil Rights, Civil Liberties Law Review

Volume

29

First Page

505

Keywords

LGBTQIA, LGBTQ, LGBT

Recommended Citation

Steven K. Homer, Against Marriage, 29 Harvard Civil Rights, Civil Liberties Law Review 505 (1994).
Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/467