Same-Sex Marriage: The Legal and Psychological Evolution in America - Hardcover

Cantor, Donald; Cantor, Elizabeth; Black, James C.; Barrett, Campbell D.

9780819568120: Same-Sex Marriage: The Legal and Psychological Evolution in America

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0819568120 ISBN 13: 9780819568120

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2006

Few recent topics have claimed as much media and political attention as the fight for the right of same-sex couples to marry legally. Striking at the heart of beliefs about sexuality, marriage, family, and child-rearing, the debate has touched off national and international debate. In this practical guide to the issues and their history, the authors present the issues as a courtroom case would be presented to the jury—with an opening statement, expert testimony, and a closing argument in support of same-sex marriage. Chapters explore how we have arrived at our current understandings of homosexuality and marriage, the impact of same-sex marriage on same-sex relationships and families, the practical civil benefits denied to persons who are not allowed to marry, and the 40-year evolution in the law as it relates to sex and reproduction. This book provides a reasoned and informed history of the subject, and is ideal for readers in government, social work, and the law—and anyone curious about where this contentious issue is headed.

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About the Author:

DONALD J. CANTOR and CAMPBELL D. BARRETT are lawyers with practices in Hartford, Connecticut. ELIZABETH CANTOR is a licensed clinical psychologist in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. JAMES C. BLACK is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut. Donald Cantor and James Black co-authored Child Custody (1989).

From Publishers Weekly:

This collection of eight essays by two attorneys and two psychologists sets itself apart in the crowded field of books about same-sex marriage by condensing dozens of dense volumes worth of legalese and psychobabble into a surprisingly readable overview. The authors, all advocates of legalizing same-sex marriage, consider legal history, political arguments, studies of gay and lesbian parents (and their children), marriage law in the United States and the institution's benefits. While most of the information offered is treated in greater depth elsewhere, this book's value lies in its readable distillation of the arguments and information of a small library's worth of titles; a well-sourced thumbnail history of homosexuality (from the ancient Greeks through Freud and Kinsey and up to the present) complements two nimble chapters outlining the history of state laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions dealing with homosexuality. Readers who want to get quickly up to speed on the case for same-sex marriage will want to give this book a look.
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