Beacon Broadside

Further Reading on Marriage Equality

If you're following the news today, or seeing all the red equality icons on Facebook, you areno doubt thinking about marriage equality. The Supreme Court hears arguments in two cases this week—Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor—that have the potential to tip the judicial scales in favor of greater legal equality for LGBT families. Here's a selection of reading that will help you dig deeper. 

How Bad Conservative Sociology is Used to Attack Gay Families

A Non-Bio Lesbian Mom's Adoption Story

Straight Talk About Gay Marriage

United for Marriage? Or for Equality?

What Kids Have to Say

 

Read all Beacon Broadside posts on Marriage Equality

 

Beacon Books on LGBT Equality

God vs. Gay?: The Religious Case for Equality by Jay Michaelson

Does the Bible prohibit homosexuality? No, says Bible scholar and activist Jay Michaelson. But not only that: Michaelson also shows that the vast majority of our shared religious traditions support the full equality and dignity of LGBT people. In this accessible, passionate, and provocative book, Michaelson argues for equality, not despite religion but because of it.

Follow Jay Michaelson on Twitter. 

Watch Jay Michaelson talk about the religous case for equality.

Read an excerpt of God vs. Gay?: The Religious Case for Equality.

 

 

Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples by Rodger Streitmatter

For more than a century before gay marriage became a hot-button political issue, same-sex unions flourished in America. Pairs of men and pairs of women joined together in committed unions, standing by each other “for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health” for periods of thirty or forty—sometimes as many as fifty—years. In short, they loved and supported each other every bit as much as any husband and wife.

In Outlaw Marriages, cultural historian Rodger Streitmatter reveals how some of these unions didn’t merely improve the quality of life for the two people involved but also enriched the American culture.

Among the high-profile couples whose lives and loves are illuminated in the following pages are Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith, literary icon Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, author James Baldwin and Lucien Happersberger, and artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.

Read an excerpt of Outlaw Marriages.

 

Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law by Nancy D. Polikoff

Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage reframes the family-rights debate by arguing that marriage shouldn't bestow special legal privileges upon couples because people, both heterosexual and LGBT, live in a variety of relationships-including unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, single-parent households, extended biological family units, and myriad other familial configurations. Nancy D. Polikoff shows how the law can value all families, and why it must.

Read an excerpt of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage.

Read Nancy Polikoff's blog.

 

From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation by Carlos A. Ball

Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.

Read an excerpt here.

 

What Is Marriage For?: The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution by E. J. Graff

Will same-sex couples destroy "traditional" marriage, soon to be followed by the collapse of all civilization? That charge has been leveled throughout history whenever the marriage rules change. But marriage, as E. J. Graff shows in this lively, fascinating tour through the history of marriage in the West, has always been a social battleground, its rules constantly shifting to fit each era and economy. The marriage debates have been especially tumultuous for the past hundred and fifty years-in ways that lead directly to today's debate over whether marriage could mean not just Boy + Girl = Babies, but also Girl + Girl = Love. 

Read the Discussion Guide here.

Related articles

Beacon Books at Audible: Outlaw Marriages by Rodger Streitmatter

How Bad Conservative Sociology is Used to Attack Gay Families

A Generational Divide Among Republicans on Gay Marriage

Which Politicians Supported Gay Marriage and When?

Why the Supreme Court Should Hear the DOMA Lawsuit

Carlos A. Ball is professor of law at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark). He has written extensively on LGBT rights issues, is the author of From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation and the recently published The Right to be Parents: LGBT Families and the Transformation of Parenthood (NYU Press, May 2012). Ball has received a Dukeminier Award from UCLA's Williams Institute for excellence in sexual orientation and the law scholarship. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.

Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the Supreme Court should quickly agree to hear the case. In its DOMA ruling, the lower appellate court practically begged the high court for guidance on how judges should assess the constitutionality of laws that treat individuals differently because of their sexual orientation.

In some ways, the Supreme Court has had it both ways in matters related to the constitutionality of laws that withhold benefits or impose burdens based on the sexual orientation of individuals. In 1996 (in Romer v. Evans), the Court struck down a Colorado constitutional provision that denied LGBT individuals (and no others) legal protection from discrimination. Seven years later (in Lawrence v. Texas), the Court found unconstitutional a Texas statute that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual intimacy. But the Court in neither case clearly explained how other laws that treat LGBT individuals differently because of their sexual orientation should be assessed under the Constitution. It is now time for the Court to speak on that issue.

Many of us have been arguing for a long time that lesbians and gay men satisfy the Court's own criteria for determining when to apply heightened (or rigorous) judicial review to laws that treat individuals differently because of who they are. The long history of discrimination that lesbians and gay men have suffered, for example, justifies judicial protection. In addition, it is widely accepted that sexual orientation does not affect the ability of individuals to contribute to society. We all know that there are lesbians and gay men who are doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, and even members of Congress. This means that courts should be particularly skeptical of laws that target individuals because of their sexual orientation.

In its ruling striking down DOMA, the First Circuit did not find it necessary to address the question of whether lesbians and gay men are entitled to heightened judicial protection. Nonetheless, after pointing to the Supreme Court's own gay rights cases, it concluded that laws which treat individuals differently because of their sexual orientation must, at the very least, be subject to a meaningful form of judicial review that denies those laws a strong presumption of constitutionality.

One of the factors that the Supreme Court is supposed to take into account in deciding whether to hear a case is the extent to which there is a need to provide guidance to lower courts on a particular question of federal law. Although defenders and supporters of DOMA agree on little, both sides should agree that we need to clear up the confusion regarding how courts should assess constitutional challenges to laws that treat individuals differently because of their sexual orientation.

The lesbian and gay plaintiffs in the First Circuit DOMA lawsuit are either currently married or were married before the deaths of their same-sex spouses. The legal issue in the case, therefore, is not whether the plaintiffs have a constitutional right to marry. Instead, the issue is whether the federal government can deprive the tens of thousands of married same-sex couples the hundreds of rights and benefits that it makes available to heterosexual married couples. The nation desperately needs guidance from the Supreme Court on the question of whether this kind of brazen differential treatment is consistent with our constitutional values of equality and fairness.

Gill v. Office of Personnel Management

GLAD DOMA Section 3 Challenge 

Free Reading for Pride Month: Find Some Excellent Book Excerpts on Scribd!

We love Scribd, and apparently many others do, too, since we're fast approaching 100,000 reads of the book excerpts we've posted there. 

If you haven't checked out the enormous wealth of reading material at Scribd, perhaps you can start with our LGBT Pride Collection. For Pride Month, we've pulled together excerpts from a dozen books: memoir, history, and ideas. Click on the covers below to read an excerpt from each book:

And if our excerpts whet your appetite for more, here are some interesting Scribd posts from other publishers we like. 

Harvard University Press: How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States

NYU Press: When Gay People Get Married

U of Chicago Press: No Place Like Home: Relationships and Family Life Among Lesbians and Gay Men

Workman: The Real World Guide to Coming Out

What Judge Walker's Ruling Tells Us About the Right's Twenty-Year Campaign of Spreading Fear on Same-Sex Marriage

Carlos A. Ball is Professor of Law at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark). He has written extensively on gay rights issues and is the author of From the Closet to the Courtrom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.

The most striking aspect of Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling, voiding California's ban on same-sex marriage, is how it makes clear that defenders of Proposition 8 did not even come close to presenting evidence in court supporting their claim that gay marriages harm society and individuals. It is one thing to say, during a political campaign in support of a ballot initiative, that same-sex marriage constitutes a threat to society or to the family or to children. It is another thing altogether to back up those claims through the introduction of specific evidence in a court of law.

Judicial rulings by trial courts are almost always forgotten after appellate courts have their say. This is hardly surprising given that appellate courts get the final word on how a lawsuit should be resolved. But there is one thing that trial judges can do that appellate judges cannot, and that is make findings of fact based on evidence submitted by the parties.

For the last twenty years, conservative activists have been prognosticating doom if society were to give same-sex couples the opportunity to marry. And yet, when they had the chance to defend that claim in court earlier this year, they called only one witness -- David Blankenhorn, the President of the Institute for American Values -- to testify. While on the stand, Blankenhorn gave such a convoluted and unsupported explanation of how same-sex marriage is harmful -- he claimed that it contributes to the "deinstitutionalization" (whatever that means) of traditional marriage -- that Judge Walker's ruling gave no weight to his testimony.

Prop 8 Overturned in California

 “Fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote." So says yesterday's historic ruling overturning Proposition 8 in California. For the first time, a judge has granted the right to marry based on Constitutional grounds, saying that Prop 8 violated the 14th Amendment.

You can read the full ruling on Scribd, or and here's a roundup of some great media:

The New York Times editorial page with an excellent overview of the ruling and its importance. Also at the Times, an article explaining how the Supreme Court will have a hard time overturning Judge Walker's findings.

Lisa Keen offers analysis of the ruling and related cases in the courts. 

Dana Rudolph on how a court case brought by Jehovah's Witnesses aided the ruling.

LGBTQ civil rights have long been a central subject here at Beacon Press. Here are a few of our recent books relevant to yesterday's legal victory:

From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed our Nation

by Carlos Ball

Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.

Read an excerpt of the book.

 Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law

by Nancy Polikoff

Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage reframes the family-rights debate by arguing that marriage shouldn't bestow special legal privileges upon couples because people, both heterosexual and LGBT, live in a variety of relationships-including unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, single-parent households, extended biological family units, and myriad other familial configurations. Nancy D. Polikoff shows how the law can value all families, and why it must.

Read Nancy Polikoff on another recent ruling affecting gay families.

Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America's First Legal Same-Sex Marriages

by Patricia Gozemba and Karen Kahn

On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted equal marriage benefits to same-sex couples. The decision provoked a searing public debate over the meaning of marriage and family, civil rights, and the role of religion in law and society. But the experiment went forward nonetheless: thousands of Massachusetts gays and lesbians married and, remarkably, the sky did not fall.

Through engaging storytelling and powerful photographs, Courting Equality takes readers through the volatile public debate following the decision and introduces some of the many lesbian and gay families who have taken advantage of equal marriage laws. In Massachusetts, equal marriage has not destroyed the family but rather has reinforced the importance of love, commitment, fairness, and equality to the functioning of healthy democratic communities.

Read Karen Kahn on the fifth anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts.

Link Roundup: Boston and Beyond

While many see July as a time for extra vacation days, our authors are hard at work promoting their books both across the country and here in Boston. With topics ranging from controversy over pornography to violence in our prison systems, here is a look at our authors' achievements this week:

In her new book, Pornland, Gail Dines analyzes how the lucrative pornography industry has-- through violence, racism, and sexism—destroyed how the public views sexuality. (The two excerpts available on Scribd have been very popular.) At the Huffington Post, Dines discusses the research process for such a controversial subject. The blog at Ms. Magazine has posted the first two parts of a three part interview. At the Guardian, Dines's work sparked debate in the comments stream. Her interview at Pulse was picked up by Andrew Sullivan and more debate ensued.

Writer and historian Steve Puleo takes a look at the birth of Boston as a major metropolis in America in his new book A City So Grand. A fantastic review of Puleo's book can be found on Boston.com, and be sure to read a free excerpt on Scribd.

In Wealth and Our Commonwealth, Chuck Collins warns about the possibility of a permanent aristocracy in America. In an article for The Nation, Collins makes a connection to Teddy Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" speech and the dangers that accompany giving too much money and power to a select few.

California Lawyer praises Carlos Ball's From the Closet to the Courtroom, saying "[Ball] offers lawyers an enlightening shift of focus, enabling us to understand who 'makes law' in this country, and what motivates them to do so." The book examines five of the most groundbreaking cases that have shaped LGBT rights in the United States; in the Huffington Post, Ball looks at a recent victory.

The Sentencing Project, a national organization that works towards fair and effective criminal justice in America, gives a spectacular review to David Chura's I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine.

In response to youth violence in the city of Boston, officials have created 400 jobs for at-risk teenagers according to Boston.com. Ninth graders in the program will receive a copy of Michael Patrick MacDonald's memoir All Souls, which recounts his childhood growing up Irish Catholic in the violence of South Boston.

Link Roundup: Independence and Freedom for All

Independence Day reminds us not only of our rights as Americans, but also of our rights as human beings on a global scale. This week, our authors have been using their freedom of speech to promote further rights in fields such as education, religion, and LGBT law. Take a look at what they have been up to.

In Steve Wilson's book, The Boys from Little Mexico, one all-Hispanic boys' soccer team surpasses ethnic boundaries and personal struggles to win the Oregon state championship. Recently quoted in Newsweek, Wilson praises the Mexican-American players in the World Cup and their drive for success. The Oregon newspaper, the Woodburn Independent, ran a review for Wilson's book, praising it for taking the local story to a national level.

In his book From the Closet to the Courtroom, Carlos Ball discusses in rich detail five lawsuits that have affected LGBT rights for Americans. In a poignant article for the Huffington Post, Ball poses the question "Is it time for gay federal judges?" Diversity Inc. posted a short interview with the author and the Advocate.com recently ran an excerpt from the book on the topic of high school harassment. An outstanding review of the book was recently posted on Lambda Literary stating "[Ball] appeals to the hearts of his readers by fleshing out the human players in each chapter without sacrificing scholarship."

Harassment often led to violence for our next author, Geoffrey Canada, whose memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun recounts the dangers of growing up in the South Bronx. Waiting for Superman—a new documentary on America's failing education system featuring Canada—was mentioned in Entertainment Weekly. As buzz for the film begins to grow, Geoffrey Canada speaks in a brief interview about his personal feelings towards his childhood when his ideal image of Superman was rocked by the harsh realities of life.

Education is failing in both American schools and juvenile penitentiary systems according to David Chura, author of I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine. Listen to an interview with Chura on KPFA's Flashpoints (starting 43 minutes into the program) discussing the realities of juvenile incarceration. Listen to another interview with Chura on WMUA Writer's Voice where he describes how the war on crime is synonymous with the war on kids.

Finally, in celebration of UUA's General Assembly in Minneapolis, Beacon authors John Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker appeared on the radio program State of Belief to discuss their views on social activism and religion. In their book, A House for Hope, the authors describe a shared momentum among religious progressives and the impact they have on the 21st century. Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith, also appeared on the show, discussing his interactions with the Dalai Lama in strengthening Buddhist-Muslim ideals.

Link Roundup: Current Thoughts on Current Affairs

As current events continue to shape world on a daily basis, our authors have become prominent voices in speaking for topics that that range from human rights to environmental conservation. Take a look at some of the attention our authors have been getting this past week:

In his book To Uphold the World, author Bruce Rich writes about the Indian emperor Ashoka and his principles of peace and non-violence. In a recent response to the BP oil spill, Rich has published a piece for the Washington Post's blog, Political Bookworm, questioning the possibility of a universal code of ethics.

Carlos Ball, author of From the Closet to the Courtroom, describes in detail five of the most influential court cases in the realm of LGBT rights. In a recent article for the Huffington Post, Ball describes how the election of President Obama was a turning point in LGBT rights; however, in retrospect, little has actually been accomplished.

Gail Dines, author of Pornland, is a prominent voice on how porn has become a sexist, racist, and violent industry. In an article for Mother Jones, Dines (in Washington D.C. with other anti-porn activists) is quoted for her position against porn when she says, "The days of women wearing a coy smile and not much else are long gone."  

In keeping with the realm of the psychological, The Lonely American, by Jacqueline Olds MD and Richard S. Schwartz MD, looks at the overwhelming evidence that more Americans are living alone today, affecting not only their physical and mental health, but also the personal interactions within the society as a whole. In a wonderful review looking deeper into this research, the Greater Good, concludes: "turn off your computers, go knock on your neighbor's door, and don't take 'no' for an answer."

Carlos Ball: From the Closet to the Courtroom Excerpt

Carlos A. Ball is professor of law at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark) and has written extensively on gay rights issues. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of his new book, From the Closet to the Courtroom, which documents five influential lawsuits on LGBT rights that have ultimately reshaped our country.

An excerpt of From the Closet to the Courtoom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation

Obama and LGBT Rights

Carlos A. Ball is Professor of Law at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark). He has written extensively on gay rights issues and is the author of From the Closet to the Courtroom, which chronicles five ground-breaking LGBT lawsuits that ultimately defined history.

For supporters of LGBT rights, the election of President Obama represented an apparent historical turning point for sexual minorities in our country. As a presidential candidate, Obama had said all of the right things: he criticized the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy (DADT); he called for the enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would protect employees against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination; and called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

But now that almost a third of Obama's first term has gone by, there is growing despair among many of his LGBT supporters over how little the administration has accomplished on gay rights. We have been here before. Eighteen years ago many gay rights advocates celebrated the election of President Clinton, the first presidential candidate to reach out to the LGBT community, only to be disappointed by how clumsy and conflicted the new administration was in handling the gays in the military controversy.

Link Roundup: Universal Issues and Unifying Words

It's a big week for us here at Beacon Press. While Cambridge celebrated their "Go Green" awards, Boston has been displaying its LGBT pride all week. Across the globe, nations are being unified by a common love for soccer with the World Cup. Our authors are also getting involved and getting their universal messages out there to the public. Here are a few of their latest updates and achievements:

Carlos Ball's new book, From the Closet to the Courtroom, chronicles five ground-breaking LGBT lawsuits that ultimately defined history. In this month's newsletter from the Lesbian and Gay Law Association of Greater New York, Ball's book received the following praise: "This should become a basic text for college LGBT studies courses and can be read with profit by all students of LGBT law, but it is also aimed at a more general audience and is recommendable to non-specialists as well."

In a fascinating "gender-bending" look into the role of a non-biological lesbian mother, Amie Klempnauer Miller's memoir, She Looks Just Like You, was recently described in Seattle Woman as a "funny, provocative and satisfying memoir.

The World Cup has officially begun. Symbolizing the drive, determination, and love for soccer, The Boys from Little Mexico, by Steve Wilson, delves deep into the lives of an all-Hispanic boys' soccer team who, despite cultural differences, language barriers, and academic struggles, won the Oregon state championship. In an interview with Dropping Timber, a soccer blog for the Portland Timbers, Wilson stated, "My hope with the book… is that it humanizes people." OregonLive.com also featured an article on Wilson, focusing on the care he took for the privacy of the students featured in his book.

The more negative side of youth sports represented by the strive for academic scholarships, the pressures of overbearing parents, and the injuries inflicted on overworked children, is the subject of Mark Hyman's book Until It Hurts. In a recently published article in Sports Illustrated, Hyman documents the efforts of Dr. James R. Andrews and his celebrity-athlete endorsed prevention program STOP (Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention).

David Chura has observed and interacted closely with the juveniles who reside in our prison systems. His book, I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine, examines these young inmates as individuals failed by the responsibilities of our society. In a recent blog for Solitary Watch, Chura brings to light the truth behind solitary confinement.

A thorough examination of the overpopulation myth, Fred Pearce's book, The Coming Population Crash, discusses lower average birthrates across the globe, the growing epidemic of world hunger, and the first upcoming population decrease that this world has seen since the Black Death. Pearce's book was recently discussed on amnews.com.

From overpopulation to income inequality, Chuck Collins, coauthor of Wealth and our Commonwealth, describes personal wealth as being not only achieved through personal decisions and hard work, but also through the opportunities for success inherent in our society. Collins was quoted in an article for The New York Times on estate taxes and the legacies of the opulent.

There are a million questions that run through the minds of liberal consumers. How will our purchasing powers affect the economy or the environment? Who frantically toiled in a foreign country to make this coat and what were their wages? Fran Hawthorne, author of The Overloaded Liberal, tackles investing your money into the perpetuation of liberal ideals. In a recent article for The Jew and the Carrot, Hawthorne describes kosher living through the humane methods of animal slaughter and the inhuman wages paid to workers behind the scenes.

In the vein of liberal-minded consumers, we here at Beacon Press would like to congratulate the Harvard Book Store for winning the Cambridge "Go Green Award" for transportation. The store's Green Delivery Service boasts a quick and inexpensive method of using emissions-free vehicles to deliver book orders to readers across the Boston area. Harvard Book Store's actions not only promote eco-friendly methods of delivery, but also support local businesses.