Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Focus on the Facts / Edition 1

by Sean Cahill PhD, Director of Health P

Overview

Same-sex marriage is one of the main hot-button issues in the 2004 election. In order to write about it in the papers, talk about it on the radio, or discuss it at home with your families, you need the facts. Opinions abound, but what about the data? Only in this book can you get answers to the questions that might substantiate, or change, your own feelings on gay marriage, questions such as: How many same-sex couples are there in the U.S.? Where do they live? What rights do they currently have in their states? How many children are currently being raised by two mothers or two fathers? How do current policies affect their children, and how do the policies affect the parents as they age? What groups are in the "Christian right," and what are they saying? Where do they get their information? Where are the studies that prove them wrong, or right? Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Focus on the Facts does just this, it focuses on the facts. Though he doesn't hide his agenda, Sean Cahill, policy director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, doesn't need to say what's right or wrong or what's best for America. The facts speak for themselves, and they come out strongly in favor of marriage equality. Every journalist, media commentator, policy maker, educator, and every person wondering why same-sex marriage is such a visible issue these days, especially as the 2004 election rolls around, needs to read this book. Moves the debate away from rhetoric, cuts through the political posturing, gets at the hard facts.Visual layout with sidebars, charts, pull-out quotes, for quick and easy access to information. Sample chart: Laws regarding rights of same-sex couples in every state. Sample chart: Laws regarding adoption rights in every state.Sample map: Distribution of same-sex households, raising children, throughout the U.S. Relevant text from the Republican and Democratic Party Platforms. Debunks myths put out by conservative right with actual studies and data. Presents surprising statistics. For exam

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739108826
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/13/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.96(w) x 8.92(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Sean Cahill is director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Table of Contents

Part 1 A Fierce Debate Chapter 2 Landmark Decisions Chapter 3 Legislative Efforts to Restrict Same-Sex Marriage Chapter 4 Historical Precedents to the Current Debate Chapter 5 Civil Marriage and Religious Marriage Part 6 "Family Values": A Political Agenda? Chapter 7 Defining the Anti-Gay Movement Chapter 8 Financial Resources Chapter 9 Local Campaigns Chapter 10 A Larger Agenda Chapter 11 Focus on Homosexuality Chapter 12 What Do Anti-Gay Groups Say about Same-Sex Marriage and Gay Families? Part 13 The Benefits of Being Family Chapter 14 Defining the Family Chapter 15 The 2000 Census's Same-Sex Couple Sample Chapter 16 Parenting among Same-Sex Couples and Single Gay Parents Chapter 17 Custody Rights Chapter 18 Adoption Rights Chapter 19 Elder Couples Chapter 20 Health Care Part 21 Gay Rights on the Political Stage Chapter 22 Unequal Tax Treatment of Same-Sex Couples Chapter 23 The First Wave of Anti-Gay Ballot Campaigns Chapter 24 1972—1980: The Emergence of Gay Issues in Presidential Politics Chapter 25 The Reagan Years Chapter 26 Late 1980s and Early 1990s: The Rise in Anti-Gay Activism Chapter 27 Anti-Gay Politics in the 1992 Presidential Election Chapter 28 1996: Defending Marriage Chapter 29 The 2000 Election Campaign Chapter 30 The Bush—Cheney Administration in 2004 Chapter 31 The White House Defends Its Position Chapter 32 The 2004 Democratic Presidential Candidates: The Most Pro-Gay Field Yet Part 33 The Case for Marriage Equality Chapter 34 Two Stories Chapter 35 Surviving Same-Sex Partners and the Aftermath of 9/11 Chapter 36 Focus on the Future

What People are Saying About This

Tim McFeeley

An essential guide for anyone involved in the highly charged public debate over marriage equality. For policy-makers, Cahill cuts through the rhetoric over marriage equality. For reporters and commentators, Cahill's book is an indispensable reference. And for the public, Cahill lays out a convincing case for marriage equality without emotional clutter.

Urvashi Vaid

Cahill presents a refreshingly calm perspective on one of the most polarizing civil rights issues of our time. This essential book provides a succinct overview of the law and policy implications of same-sex marriage and debunks the arguments of its detractors with unimpeachable data. If you want more than a sound bite, if you like intelligent analysis rather than shrill name-calling, read this book.

Sharon Kleinbaum

In a climate of hysteria and anti-gay rhetoric, Cahill's thoughtful commentary demands our attention. This is an excellent contribution to the current debate on same-sex marriage.

R Claire Snyder

Sean Cahill's Same-Sex Marriage in the United States really does 'focus on the facts.' A treasure trove of information, the book offers a crash course on the gay marriage issue and a point by point engagement with critics. It deserves a wide audience.

Kenneth Sherrill

Cahill makes a compelling case for ending discrimination in the right to marry. The book is timely, concise, factual, and persuasive. It not only makes the case for same-sex marriage, it forcefully refutes the myths, falsehoods, and outright lies that characterize much of the opposition to full equality for LGBT people. The book should be read widely.

Editorial Reviews

In 2003-4, same-sex marriage was certainly among the most visible and contentious social issues in the US. This book presents a timely, clearly written survey of many of the key aspects of the debate and the relevant research relating to it. Altogether, this is an informative, useful contribution to the literature on same-sex marriage. Recommended.

Choice Reviews

An essential guide for anyone involved in the highly charged public debate over marriage equality. For policy-makers, Cahill cuts through the rhetoric over marriage equality. For reporters and commentators, Cahill's book is an indispensable reference. And for the public, Cahill lays out a convincing case for marriage equality without emotional clutter.

Tim McFeeley

A fact-driven and fact-heavy book, Cahill takes each argument opposing same-sex marriage and demolishes it point by point, while weaving in additional information about the often-dubious causes that opponents of same-sex marriage are engaged in: against affirmative action, opposing immigration and benefits for legal immigrants, enemies of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Irish Echo

Starting with a primer on how judicial decisions (including the Lawrence v. Texas case with Houston roots) opened the floodgates of debate, Cahill exposes the hidden agendas behind well-financed groups who lead the charge against same-sex marriage.

Outsmart

They actually used the word ‘hijack’ – just a month after 9-11.” You can hear the contempt in Sean Cahill’s voice as he quotes the “Christian” front group Concerned Women of America’s claim that the roughly 20 gay and lesbian surviving partners of 9-11 victims were trying to “hijack the moral capital of marriage and apply it to their own relationships.” The reason? These men and women who’d lost their partners 30 days earlier in the worst terrorist attack in American history had the audacity to apply for spousal compensation from the taxpayer-funded September 11 Victims Compensation Fund. If you ever thought, even for a moment, that the Republican Party’s decades-long effort to demonize gays and lesbians was born of sincere religious conviction; Sean Cahill’s new book Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Focus on the Facts will quickly disabuse you of the notion. Painstakingly, powerfully and with a passion not implied by the title, the director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Institute makes the Constitutional case for same-sex marriage. In the process, he paints a devastating picture of the Christian political operations that do the dirty work for the Administration and the Republican National Committee. “A lot of these organizations use gay bashing as a cash cow,” he told the Gay & Lesbian Times in a recent interview. “Gay bashing motivates people to part with their money in a way that abortion doesn’t anymore.” If Cahill’s analysis is correct, what he calls the “anti-gay movement” has every reason to be terrified. Barring a federal Constitutional amendment, “same-sex marriage” is an all-but-inevitable outcome of a kind of legal perfect storm: The 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, striking down that state’s sodomy law, and the Massachusetts’ Supreme Court’s, five months later, ruling that denying marriage to same-sex couples violates the Commonwealth’s constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. In vivid detail Cahill chronicles the incalc

Gay and Lesbian Times

Cahill presents a refreshingly calm perspective on one of the most polarizing civil rights issues of our time. This essential book provides a succinct overview of the law and policy implications of same-sex marriage and debunks the arguments of its detractors with unimpeachable data. If you want more than a sound bite, if you like intelligent analysis rather than shrill name-calling, read this book.

Urvashi Vaid

Dr. Cahill makes a compelling case for ending discrimination in the right to marry. The book is timely, concise, factual, and persuasive. It not only makes the case for same-sex marriage, it forcefully refutes the myths, falsehoods, and outright lies that characterize much of the opposition to full equality for LGBT people. The book should be read widely.

Kenneth Sherrill

Tracing the development of same-sex marriage in the United States and its deployment as a political tool, Sean Cahill lays out the current situation in plain language and explains what's at stake.

Newsweekly

In a climate of hysteria and anti-gay rhetoric, Cahill's thoughtful commentary demands our attention. This is an excellent contribution to the current debate on same-sex marriage.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum

Sean Cahill's Same-Sex Marriage in the United States really does 'focus on the facts.' A treasure trove of information, the book offers a crash course on the gay marriage issue and a point by point engagement with critics. It deserves a wide audience.

R Claire Snyder

In 2003-4, same-sex marriage was certainly among the most visible and contentious social issues in the US. This book presents a timely, clearly written survey of many of the key aspects of the debate and the relevant research relating to it. Altogether, this is an informative, useful contribution to the literature on same-sex marriage. Recommended.

Choice

In 2003-4, same-sex marriage was certainly among the most visible and contentious social issues in the US. This book presents a timely, clearly written survey of many of the key aspects of the debate and the relevant research relating to it. Altogether, this is an informative, useful contribution to the literature on same-sex marriage. Recommended.

CHOICE

The 2000 census was the first to make any realistic estimate of the number of gay/lesbian couples in the United States. Its questions were flexible enough to allow those inclined to indicate same-sex unmarried partner household status. Here, the two largest lesbian and gay lobbyist groups put these data to good use. In their work, Gates and Ost of the Human Rights Campaign present maps of the 50 states indicating concentration of same-sex couples by census tract and county. Other correlations, such as race and number of children, are provided as well. In addition, more than 20 maps of metropolitan areas indicate concentrations by zip code and census tract. The authors discuss some of the issues involved in using census data, the strengths and limitations of these data, and the rationale for doing this work. Though some of the assumptions underlying the enterprise may be questionable, the atlas makes the best use of what data are available and has enough depth to lead to solid analysis of the relationships between geography and gay and lesbian demographics. Libraries with readers interested in contemporary social trends will find this atlas a necessity. Cahill (National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) uses the same data and provides similar maps but in a more limited way since he is focusing on the question of same-sex marriage. And he includes much else besides. Briefly, his book is a m lange of maps, tables, and statistics. It also has a list of rebuttals to arguments against same-sex marriage. Since this topic is of such broad interest and the information contained here is presented so well and succinctly, this work makes a good companion to the atlas. However, the price differential between the paperback and hardcover editions is so large that it seems foolhardy for libraries to purchase the hardcover. David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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