Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con: A Reader - Softcover

Sullivan, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679776370 ISBN 13: 9780679776376

Publisher: Vintage, 1997

Synopsis

From Plato to Camille Paglia, a collection of opinions, pro and con, on one of the most explosive issues of our time. Were homosexual unions sanctioned by societies before our own? What are the bases for the religious proscriptions against them? Does the Constitution implicitly grant homosexuals the right to marry? Will same-sex marriages make gays and lesbians more like heterosexuals or somehow undermine the traditional family? How will they affect our notions of parenthood?

In Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con these questions are explored by clergy and jurists, historians and anthropologists, poets, conservative politicians, queer theorists, and many others. Andrew Sullivan gathers two thousand years of argument on same-sex partnerships into an anthology of historic inclusiveness and evenhandedness. Readers of every sexual and ideological persuasion will be consulting this definitive book for years to come. Includes writings from or by: Genesis, Montaigne, Ann Landers, Antonin Scalia, Plato, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Katha Pollitt, James Q. Wilson, Hannah Arendt, William Bennett, Senate Debate on Defense of Marriage Act, Jonathan Rauch, Rabbi Yoel H. Kahn, Amy E. Schwartz, William Safire, Barney Frank, and Charles Krauthammer.

About this title

Review

At the end of Virtually Normal, Andrew Sullivan called for the legalization of gay and lesbian marriages as a recognition of an individual's right to enter into a committed relationship with the person he or she loves. Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con is, as the title suggests, a collection of arguments for and against such unions. Sullivan provides little commentary, allowing the various authors gathered here to speak for themselves. No matter which side one supports on this issue, this anthology will enable both an intellectual support of one's own beliefs and a better, fuller understanding of the contrary position.

About the Author

Andrew Sullivan is a senior editor at The New Republic, where he was editor from 1991-1996; a columnist for Time magazine; and daily writer for www.andresullivan.com, one of the most influential political weblogs.  He is the author of Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality.  He holds a B.A. in modern history and modern languages from Oxford University and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. He lives in Washington D.C., and Providencetown, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0679776370
• ISBN 13: 9780679776376
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400