 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Davina Kotulski |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Same-sex marriage |
| Publisher | Advocate Books |
Publication date | 2004 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 202 |
| ISBN | 1555838731 |
| LC Class | HQ1034.U5 K67 2004 |
Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage is a 2004 book by Davina Kotulski in which the author advocates the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. It received generally positive reviews in the LGBT press.
Kotulski states that heterosexual couples who marry in the United States gain at least 1,049 federal rights, all of which are denied to same-sex couples who cannot legally marry. [1] She rejects alternatives to marriage such as domestic partnership and civil union, describing these as inferior options for gay people. [2]
Davina Kotulski is a clinical psychologist and LGBT rights activist. [3] Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage was her first book; according to Kotulski, she wrote it in four and a half months. [4] The book was first published in April 2004 by Advocate Books, an imprint of Alyson Publications. [5]
Kotulski and McKay received the "Defenders of Love" Award from the East Bay Pride Committee, and in 2004, she received the "Saints Alive" award from the San Francisco Metropolitan Community Church and was "sainted" by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for her activism and advocacy for same-sex marriage. In 2006, Kotulski and McKay received the Michael "Switzer Leadership Award" from New Leaf Counseling Center in San Francisco.[ citation needed ]
Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage received positive reviews from Brad Benedict in Ambush Magazine, [3] Joe E. Jeffreys in the Bay Area Reporter , [6] the novelist Lori L. Lake in Sinister Wisdom , [7] and Steffen Silvis in Willamette Week . [8] It received a mixed review from Andrew Hicks in The Gayly Oklahoman. [9]
Benedict described Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage as "a quick-witted, common sense handbook" and "a vital resource" for journalists covering the same-sex marriage debate. [3] Jeffreys wrote that Kotulski had used "easy-to-understand, lively, conversational prose" to explain complicated legal matters. He credited her with advancing a "solid and speedy" argument for supporting same-sex marriage. [6] Lake called the book "a quick and simple read". She predicted that readers would "begin to see new possibilities in their lives, and be inspired to join the growing freedom to marry movement". [7]
Silvis wrote that, as a queer person, he had previously "looked disdainfully upon gay marriage as a plot to domesticate our uniqueness"; however, Kotulski's book had convinced him otherwise. He credited her with arguing rigorously for "a wider definition of marriage" and convincingly addressing objections. [8] Hicks found the beginning chapters "vivid and exciting", but believed that the later ones lacked entertainment value and contained too many illustrations and diagrams. [9]
Margaret Gallagher is an American writer, socially conservative commentator, and activist. She wrote a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate from 1995 to 2013 and has written several books. Gallagher founded the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a small, socially conservative think tank. She is also a co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an advocacy group which opposes same-sex marriage and other legal recognition of same-sex partnerships; she has served as president and as chairman of the board of NOM.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ireland since 16 November 2015. A referendum on 22 May 2015 amended the Constitution of Ireland to provide that marriage is recognised irrespective of the sex of the partners. The measure was signed into law by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, as the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland on 29 August 2015. The Marriage Act 2015, passed by the Oireachtas on 22 October 2015 and signed into law by the Presidential Commission on 29 October 2015, gave legislative effect to the amendment. Same-sex marriages in Ireland began being recognised from 16 November 2015, and the first marriage ceremonies of same-sex couples in Ireland occurred the following day. Ireland was the eighteenth country in the world and the eleventh in Europe to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Massachusetts since May 17, 2004, as a result of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Constitution of Massachusetts to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts was the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. It was the first U.S. state to open marriage to same-sex couples.
Freedom to Marry was the national bipartisan organization dedicated to winning marriage for same-sex couples in the United States. Freedom to Marry was founded in New York City in 2003 by Evan Wolfson. Wolfson served as president of the organization through the June 2015 victory at the Supreme Court, until the organization's official closing in February 2016.
Antisexualism is opposition or hostility towards sexual behavior and sexuality.
Kenneth Brian Mehlman is an American social entrepreneur and businessman. He serves as a member, global head of public affairs, and co-head of KKR global impact at investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. He oversees the firm's responsible investment efforts, leading the firm's Environmental Social Governance programs. Prior to joining KKR, Mehlman spent a year as an attorney and partner at law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. In January 2017, Mehlman announced that he would act as chairman of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Policy Advisory Board.
"There's Something About Marrying" is the tenth episode of the sixteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. In the episode, Springfield legalizes same-sex marriage to increase tourism. After becoming a minister, Homer starts to wed people to make money. Meanwhile, Marge's sister Patty comes out as a lesbian and reveals she is going to marry a woman named Veronica. The episode title is a play on the Farrelly brothers' 1998 romantic comedy There's Something About Mary.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in New Jersey since October 21, 2013, the effective date of a trial court ruling invalidating the state's restriction of marriage to persons of different sexes. In September 2013, Mary C. Jacobson, Assignment Judge of the Mercer Vicinage of the Superior Court, ruled that as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2013 decision in United States v. Windsor, the Constitution of New Jersey requires the state to recognize same-sex marriages. The Windsor decision held that the federal government was required to provide the same benefits to same-sex couples who were married under state law as to other married couples. Therefore, the state court reasoned in Garden State Equality v. Dow that, because same-sex couples in New Jersey were limited to civil unions, which are not recognized as marriages under federal law, the state must permit civil marriage for same-sex couples. This ruling, in turn, relied on the 2006 decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court in Lewis v. Harris that the state was constitutionally required to afford the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. The Supreme Court had ordered the New Jersey Legislature to correct the constitutional violation, by permitting either same-sex marriage or civil unions with all the rights and benefits of marriage, within 180 days. In response, it passed a bill to legalize civil unions on December 21, 2006, which became effective on February 19, 2007.
Evan Wolfson is an attorney and gay rights advocate. He is the founder of Freedom to Marry, a group favoring same-sex marriage in the United States, serving as president until its 2015 victory and subsequent wind-down. Wolfson authored the book Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry, which Time Out New York magazine called, "Perhaps the most important gay-marriage primer ever written". He was listed as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. He has taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, Rutgers Law School, and Whittier Law School and argued before the Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. He now teaches law and social change at Georgetown Law School and at Yale University; serves as a senior counsel at Dentons, the world's largest law firm; and primarily provides advice and assistance to other organizations and causes, in the United States and globally, that are seeking to adapt the lessons on "how to win" from the same-sex marriage movement.
Michael Leshner and Michael Stark, also known as The Michaels, were the men who in 2003 entered into the first legal same-sex marriage in Canada. They were consequently named the Canadian Newsmakers of the Year by Time magazine.
All homosexual sexual activity is condemned as sinful by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its law of chastity, and the church teaches that God does not approve of same-sex marriage. Adherents who participate in same-sex sexual behavior may face church discipline. Members of the church who experience homosexual attractions, including those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual remain in good standing in the church if they abstain from same-sex marriage and any homosexual sexual activity or sexual relationships outside an opposite-sex marriage. However, all people, including those in same-sex relationships and marriages, are permitted to attend the weekly Sunday meetings.
Molly B. McKay is an American attorney and a civil rights activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. McKay was the former Co-Executive Director of Marriage Equality California and the former Media Director for Marriage Equality USA. She has also been active in Californians for Same Sex Marriage and the California Freedom to Marry Coalition, and was the Associate Executive Director of Equality California. McKay married her longtime partner Davina Kotulski in 2004 when Gavin Newsom made same sex marriage legal for one day in San Francisco.
Marriage privatization is the concept that the state should have no authority to define the terms of personal relationships such as marriage. Proponents of marriage privatization, including certain minarchists, anarchists, libertarians, and opponents of government interventionism, claim that such relationships are best defined by private individuals and not the state. Arguments for the privatization of marriage have been offered by a number of scholars and writers. Proponents of marriage privatization often argue that privatizing marriage is a solution to the social controversy over same-sex marriage. Arguments for and against the privatization of marriage span both liberal and conservative political camps.
Many views are held or have been expressed by religious organisation in relation to same-sex marriage. Arguments both in favor of and in opposition to same-sex marriage are often made on religious grounds and/or formulated in terms of religious doctrine. Although many of the world's religions are opposed to same-sex marriage, the number of religious denominations that are conducting same-sex marriages have been increasing since 2010. Religious views on same-sex marriage are closely related to religious views on homosexuality.
The Marriage Equality Caravan, or Marriage Equality Express, was an educational bus tour organized by the California chapter of Marriage Equality USA, in response to the invalidation by the California Supreme Court, on August 11, 2004, of 4,000 same-sex marriages that had taken place between February 12 and March 11 of that year. The tour was led by Davina Kotulski, Molly McKay, Belinda Ryan, Wendy Daw, Jacqueline Frank, and Bev Senkowski.
The Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) was a statewide political advocacy organization in New York that advocated for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) rights, including same-sex marriage. ESPA has since disbanded after an executive order was passed by Governor Andrew Cuomo which protects the rights of transgender citizens as long as future governors uphold the law. ESPA was founded in 1990 through the merger of the New York State Gay and Lesbian Lobby and the Friends and Advocates for Individual Rights. ESPA was considered the leading gay political organization in the State of New York before it disbanded. As of 2005, ESPA was the largest statewide lesbian and gay political advocacy and civil rights organization in the United States.
Albania does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage was introduced to Parliament in 2009 with the support of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, but was never put to a vote.
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) was an advocacy group driven by volunteers who came together to pursue the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. AME partnered with a diverse range of organisations and supporters across the country to end the exclusion of same-sex LGBTIQ couples from marriage in Australia. It was the pre-eminent group campaigning for same-sex marriage in Australia.
Kitchen v. Herbert, 961 F.Supp.2d 1181, affirmed, 755 F.3d 1193 ; stay granted, 134 S.Ct. 893 (2014); petition for certiorari denied, No. 14-124, 2014 WL 3841263, is the federal case that successfully challenged Utah's constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples and similar statutes. Three same-sex couples filed suit in March 2013, naming as defendants Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert, Attorney General John Swallow, and Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen in their official capacities.
Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America is a 2004 book by the journalist Jonathan Rauch in which the author advocates the legal and social recognition of same-sex marriage.