Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe

Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe PDF Author: John Boswell
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804150958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them--in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.

Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe

Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe PDF Author: John Boswell
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804150958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them--in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.

Blessing Same-Sex Unions

Blessing Same-Sex Unions PDF Author: Mark D. Jordan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226410358
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
At most church weddings, the person presiding over the ritual is not a priest or a pastor, but the wedding planner, followed by the photographer, the florist, and the caterer. And in this day and age, more wedding theology is supplied by Modern Bride magazine or reality television than by any of the Christian treatises on holy matrimony. Indeed, church weddings have strayed long and far from distinctly Christian aspirations. The costumes and gestures might still be right, but the intentions are hardly religious. Why then, asks noted gay commentator Mark D. Jordan, are so many churches vehemently opposed to blessing same-sex unions? In this incisive work, Jordan shows how carefully selected ideals of Christian marriage have come to dominate recent debates over same-sex unions. Opponents of gay marriage, he reveals, too often confuse simplified ideals of matrimony with historical facts. They suppose, for instance, that there has been a stable Christian tradition of marriage across millennia, when in reality Christians have quarreled among themselves for centuries about even the most basic elements of marital theology, authorizing experiments like polygamy and divorce. Jordan also argues that no matter what the courts do, Christian churches will have to decide for themselves whether to bless same-sex unions. No civil compromise can settle the religious questions surrounding gay marriage. And queer Christians, he contends, will have to discover for themselves what they really want out of marriage. If they are not just after legal recognition as a couple or a place at the social table, do they really seek the blessing of God? Or just the garish melodrama of a white wedding? Posing trenchant questions such as these, Blessing Same-Sex Unions will be a must-read for both sides of the debate over gay marriage in America today.

The Future of Marriage (Easyread Large Edition)

The Future of Marriage (Easyread Large Edition) PDF Author: David Blankenhorn
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458763374
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
With precision and passion, David Blankenhorn offers a bold new argument in the debate over same-sex marriage: that it would essentially deny all children, not just the children of same-sex couples, their birthright to their own mother and father. If we change marriage, we change parenthood - for all families. Altering marriage to accommodate same-sex couples would mean weakening in culture and eliminating in law the idea that children need both their mother and their father. The Future of Marriage analyzes recent survey data from 35 countries, offering the first scientific evidence that support for marriage is weakest in those nations where support for gay marriage is strongest. Blankenhorn explains how same-sex marriage would transform our most pro-child social institution into a purely private relationship (''an expression of love'') between adults, defined by each couple as they wish. Changing marriage laws to include same-sex couples, he argues, would require us to ''deinstitutionalize'' marriage, ''amputating from the institution one after another of its core ideas, until the institution itself is like a room with all the furniture removed and everything stripped from the walls.'' For Blankenhorn, the main question concerning the future of marriage in the United States is not whether we will adopt gay marriage. The main question is whether the social institution of marriage will become stronger or weaker. If we wish to strengthen marriage on behalf of children, there is no shortage of ideas for doing so. What matters is whether we as a society regard this as a worthy and urgent goal.

Debating Same-Sex Marriage

Debating Same-Sex Marriage PDF Author: John Corvino
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199756325
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Polls and election results show Americans sharply divided on same-sex marriage, and the controversy is unlikely to subside anytime soon. Debating Same-Sex Marriage provides an indispensable roadmap to the ongoing debate. Taking a "point/counterpoint" approach, John Corvino (a philosopher and prominent gay advocate) and Maggie Gallagher (a nationally syndicated columnist and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage) explore fundamental questions: What is marriage for? Is sexual difference essential to it? Why does the government sanction it? What are the implications of same-sex marriage for children's welfare, for religious freedom, and for our understanding of marriage itself? While the authors disagree on many points, they share the following conviction: Because marriage is a vital public institution, this issue deserves a comprehensive, rigorous, thoughtful debate.

Winning Marriage

Winning Marriage PDF Author: Marc Solomon
Publisher: University Press of New England
ISBN: 1611689198
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
In this updated, paperback edition of Winning Marriage, Marc Solomon, a veteran leader in the movement for marriage equality, gives the reader a seat at the strategy-setting and decision-making table in the campaign to win and protect the freedom to marry. With depth and grace he reveals the inner workings of the advocacy movement that has championed and protected advances won in legislative, court, and electoral battles over the years since the landmark Massachusetts ruling guaranteeing marriage for same-sex couples for the first time. The paperback edition includes a new afterword on the historic 2015 Supreme Court ruling on marriage that includes practical lessons from the marriage campaign that are applicable to other social movements. From the gritty clashes in the state legislatures of Massachusetts and New York to the devastating loss at the ballot box in California in 2008 and subsequent ballot wins in 2012 to the joys of securing President Obama's support and achieving ultimate victory in the Supreme Court, Marc Solomon has been at the center of one of the great civil and human rights movements of our time. Winning Marriage recounts the struggle with some of the world's most powerful forces-the Catholic hierarchy, the religious right, and cynical ultraconservative political operatives-and the movement's eventual triumph.

Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons

Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons PDF Author: Catholic Church. Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gay couples
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description


Gay Marriage

Gay Marriage PDF Author: Jonathan Rauch
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429936746
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
A leading Washington journalist argues that gay marriage is the best way to preserve and protect society's most essential institution Two people meet and fall in love. They get married, they become upstanding members of their community, they care for each other when one falls ill, they grow old together. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, says Jonathan Rauch, and that's the point. If the two people are of the same sex, why should this chain of events be any less desirable? Marriage is more than a bond between individuals; it also links them to the community at large. Excluding some people from the prospect of marriage not only is harmful to them, but is also corrosive of the institution itself. The controversy over gay marriage has reached a critical point in American political life as liberals and conservatives have begun to mobilize around this issue, pro and con. But no one has come forward with a compelling, comprehensive, and readable case for gay marriage-until now. Jonathan Rauch, one of our most original and incisive social commentators, has written a clear and honest manifesto explaining why gay marriage is important-even crucial-to the health of marriage in America today. Rauch grounds his argument in commonsense, mainstream values and confronting the social conservatives on their own turf. Gay marriage, he shows, is a "win-win-win" for strengthening the bonds that tie us together and for remaining true to our national heritage of fairness and humaneness toward all.

Beyond Straight and Gay Marriage

Beyond Straight and Gay Marriage PDF Author: Nancy D. Polikoff
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807044322
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Part of the Queer Ideas series, edited by Michael Bronski QUEER IDEAS-a new series of LGBT hardcovers that address important intellectual questions facing the movement. The debate over marriage equality for same-sex couples rages across the country. Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage boldly moves the discussion forward by focusing on the larger, more fundamental issue of marriage and the law. The root problem, asserts law professor and LGBT rights activist Nancy Polikoff, is that marriage is a bright dividing line between those relationships that legally matter and those that don't. A woman married to a man for nine months is entitled to Social Security survivor's benefits when he dies; a woman living for nineteen years with a man or woman to whom she is not married receives nothing. Polikoff reframes the debate by arguing that all family relationships and households need the economic stability and emotional peace of mind that now extend only to married couples. Unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, single-parent households, extended family units, and myriad other familial configurations need recognition and protection to meet the concerns they all share: building and sustaining economic and emotional interdependence, and nurturing the next generation. Couples should have the choice to marry based on the spiritual, cultural, or religious meaning of marriage in their lives, asserts Polikoff. While marriage equality for same-sex couples is a civil rights victory, she contends that no one should have to marry in order to reap specific and unique legal results. A persuasive argument that married couples should not receive special rights denied to other families, Polikoff shows how the law can value all families, and why it must. "A much-needed intervention in the contemporary debate about marriage and family. Polikoff's argument is provocative, illuminating, and original." -John D'Emilio, author of Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin "Polikoff mobilizes an impressive array of legal history and contemporary court cases to show how marriage, whether same-sex or heterosexual, has ceased to be the only place where people incur long-term obligations. She argues vigorously that our society needs to find new ways of determining when legally-enforceable responsibilities and entitlements have accrued in interpersonal relationships." -Stephanie Coontz, author, Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage "This book really matters. It is brilliant and thoughtful, not simply about a set of laws, but as a manifesto to transform the way we understand, recognize and respect the reality of our diverse and complex family compositions. Polikoff grounds her arguments in the 35 year history of social change activism in this country to construct a passionate and nuanced argument for expanding our same sex marriage activism to include all of the ways people love, form families and build community." -Amber Hollibaugh, Senior Strategist, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and author of My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming her Way Home "Passionate but completely grounded in reality, Polikoff challenges LGBT rights advocates to see beyond gay equality arguments and question the fundamental fairness of limiting family recognition based on marriage, gay or straight. It is a powerful call for social justice." -Nan D. Hunter, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project and Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School "A provocative and perspicuous intervention in one of the most devilish recent debates in U.S. law and politicshellip;In a principled yet pragmatic analysis, Polikoff mounts a compelling case against the continued grip of 'conjugalism'on our family law and policy. Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage challenges us

Same Sex, Different States

Same Sex, Different States PDF Author: Andrew Koppelman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300135130
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
This book is a comparative history devoted to the revolutionary tradition in the West as it evolved over many centuries and reached its logical, though extreme, culmination in the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Unique in the breadth of its scope, "History's Locomotives" is also unique in its interpretation of the origins and history of socialism as well as the meanings of the Russian Revolution, the rise of the Soviet regime, and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. The masterwork of a historian in whom a fine sense of historical particularity never interfered with the ability to see the large picture, this book explores religious conflicts in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe, the revolutions in England, American, and France, and the twentieth-century Russian explosions into revolution. Malia finds that twentieth-century revolutions have deep roots in European history and that revolutionary thought and action underwent a process of radicalization from one great revolution to the next. He offers an original view of the phenomenon of revolution and a fascinating assessment of its power as a driving force in history.

Gay Marriage and Democracy

Gay Marriage and Democracy PDF Author: R. Claire Snyder
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742527874
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book discusses the context for and arguments in favor of same-sex marriage in the United States.