Awards

• Commended for Lambda Literary Awards (Nonfiction) 2008

Overview

Full Product Details

9780807044322

Table of Contents

Reviews

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 <br> 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 <br> 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 <br> 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 <br> A provocative and perspicuous intervention in one of the most devilish recent debates in U.S. law and politics...In a principled yet pragmatic analysis, Polikoff mounts a compelling case against the continued g

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 @lt;i@gt;Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin@lt;/i@gt;@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt; 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, @lt;i@gt;Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage@lt;/i@gt;@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt; 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.

Author Information

Nancy Polikoff is a Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, where she teaches Sexuality and the Law and has taught Family Law for more than 20 years. Previously, she supervised the family law programs of the Women's Legal Defense Fund, and before that she practiced law as part of a feminist law collective, where she specialized in family law. For more than 30 years, she has been writing about, speaking about, and litigating cases involving lesbian and gay families. Professor Polikoff's articles have appeared in many law journals, including those at University of Chicago, Georgetown, Harvard, Hastings, and Hofstra. Her history of the development of the law affecting lesbian and gay parenting appears as a chapter in the 2000 book, ""Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights,"" edited by John D'Emilio, William Turner, and Urvashi Vaid. Professor Polikoff was successful appellate counsel in the case that the established the right of lesbian and gay couples to jointly adopt children in the District of Columbia, and in a Maryland case overturning a visitation order prohibiting any contact between a gay noncustodial father's children and his life partner. Visit her website at beyondstraightandgaymarriage.com. Michael Bronski is professor of practice in media and activism in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Program at Harvard University. He has written extensively on LGBT issues for four decades, in both mainstream and queer publications, and is the author of three other books and editor of several anthologies.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available