same-sex marriage

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.

Told in a series of essays that mimics the course of a traditional wedding, from engagement to walking down the aisle, to honeymoon and beyond, The Best Party of Our Lives invites readers to reflect on what makes their own relationships unique, and the significance of public celebrations of love. With chapters each focusing on a different couple's love story, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned, the book offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the changing face of marriage.

In June 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law in all fifty states in a decision as groundbreaking as Roe v Wade and Brown v Board of Education. Through insider accounts and access to key players, this definitive account reveals the dramatic and previously unreported events behind Obergefell v Hodges and the lives at its center. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had to provide married gay couples all the benefits offered to straight couples. Jim Obergefell and John Hodges--who was dying from ALS--flew to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal. But back home, Ohio refused to recognize their union, or even list Jim's name on John's death certificate. Then they met Al Gerhardstein, a courageous attorney who had spent nearly three decades advocating for civil rights and who now saw an opening for the cause that few others had before him.

Offers LGBT families and their allies practical advice for thriving at home, school, and in their community. Focuses on safety in professional, social, and recreational settings.

An in-depth look at the United States Constitution and how it has been interpreted to apply to marriage rights. Focuses on legislation in the United States pertaining to same-sex marriage, how laws about marriage rights affect people's lives, and how this legal issue has evolved over time.

"Forcing the Spring begins on Election Night 2008, when a controversial California ballot initiative called Proposition 8--which removed the right of gay men and women to marry--passed alongside Barack Obama's stunning victory. Forcing the Spring details how a small but determined group of political and media insiders took the fight for marriage equality all the way to the Supreme Court. Gay activists and Hollywood liberals joined together to enlist attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies--the opposing counsels on the Supreme Court's infamous Bush v. Gore ruling--to bring a controversial legal case against Proposition 8 before the highest court in the land. Forcing the Spring is the extraordinary ringside account of this unprecedented effort to shift public opinion and reengineer the political certainties of an era"--.