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The Limits to Union

Same-Sex Marriage and the Politics of Civil Rights

Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller

Publication Year: 2002

Revised and updated to include the most current information on same-sex marriage, The Limits to Union documents a legal struggle at its moment of greatest historical importance. "The Limits to Union is a superb book about the complexities of recent political struggles over same-sex marriage. Goldberg-Hiller offers a sophisticated account of egalitarian rights advocacy and the reaction it has generated from established majorities animated by a 'new common sense' of exclusionary sovereign authority. The author's analysis is multidimensional and nuanced, but the core argument is bold, important, and well-supported. I recommend it very highly to everyone interested in understanding the character, possibilities, and constraints of civil rights amid our contemporary culture wars." -Michael McCann, author of Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization "In this excellent book, Goldberg-Hiller uses Hawaii's experience to examine the interaction between courts and the political system. . . . Relying on briefs, legislative statements, and interviews with activists from both sides of the question, he views this familiar debate . . . through the unfamiliar prism of gay marriage, which allows him to gauge the viability and the pliability of the American civil rights ideal, and how gay and lesbian issues fit (or don't fit) within that ideal." -Willian Heinzen, New York Law Journal "Goldberg-Hiller presents the history of the same-sex marriage question since it first sparked debate in Hawaii. He follows the shifting debate through court cases, state propositions, and state and federal legislatures, considering questions about the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and the concept of equal protection under the law for gays and lesbians. This detailed treatment of the legal issues surrounding same-sex marriages is highly recommended." -R. L. Abbott, University of Evansville "[A] valuable contribution to the field, situating the gay marriage debate in broader contexts of theory, law and practice. [S]ame-sex marriage is an important issue...that finds itself caught in the friction points of much larger debates over the nature of rights, the limits of sovereignty and the proper role of courts and law in a democratic society. The Limits to Union should therefore be of interest even to those who do not think of themselves as interested in gay and lesbian rights issues." -Evan Gerstmann, Loyola Marymount University, Law and Politics Book Review

Published by: University of Michigan Press

Contents

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pp. vii-viii

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Acknowledgments

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pp. ix-x

I have gained many worthwhile debts as this book has been written.Repayment must begin with some public acknowledgment and sincere thanks. My appreciation is extended to the many activists who gave me their time, sitting for interviews and helping me understand their fears,hopes, and expectations. Their names are too numerous to list here, but...

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Chapter 1. A Trip to the"Alter"

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pp. 1-44

In November 1998, 69 percent of the voters in Hawai'i approved an amendment to the state constitution to permit the legislature "to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples." Coming five years after the Hawai'i Supreme Court, in Baehr v. Lewin 1 held for the first time that same-sex marriage was a matter of equal protection law, and two years...

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Chapter 2. Sovereign Rites, Civil Rights

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pp. 45-76

Gay rights and gay activism have increasingly become the central axis for conservative claims of cultural and political implosion and the imperative of a politics of values (Herman 1997; Patton 1997). Stories about extensive gay and lesbian political agendas, outrageous queer ...

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Chapter 3. The Status of Status

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pp. 77-114

The politics of sovereignty emerging from the same-sex marriage cases and Amendment 2 has affected the terrain for legal mobilization by transforming legal meanings and challenging the contexts for action,fueling the general skepticism about the costs and payoff of rights strategies for gays and lesbians in the post-civil rights era (Bower 1997;...

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Chapter 4. Laboring for Rights

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pp. 115-146

The strategies that have brought the labor movement in the United States to the same table as lesbian and gay organizations to dine on the fruits of common interest have had mixed success. Political initiatives to deprive gays and lesbians of their civil rights in Maine, Oregon, and ...

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Chapter 5. Hawaiian Wedding Song

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pp. 147-180

As these excerpts from the Hawai' i debates over same-sex marriage illustrate, the historical and rhetorical value of " traditional marriage " is supported by religious memory and by the construction of stat e sovereignty, both impressed upon the laws to retain and perpetuate "right - ...

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Chapter 6. Global Wedding Bells

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pp. 181-220

The dangers and rectitude that devolve from being the first jurisdiction to recognize same-sex marriage open a vast horizon from which to triangulate a sovereign position. In one direction stretch the shoals of economic ruin and the mirage of fabulous gain that reward or punish ...

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Chapter 7. Conclusion-the Mourning After

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pp. 221-236

The struggle over same-sex marriage is a prism that splits citizenship and sovereignty. No longer seen in the white light and shadow of juridical relations, the demands for formal recognition on the basis of private lives has refracted citizenship into its many governmentalized components-the discursive spectrum of the new sovereign. Debates ...

Notes

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pp. 237-264

Bibliography

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pp. 265-284

Index

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pp. 285-290


E-ISBN-13: 9780472022748
E-ISBN-10: 0472022741
Print-ISBN-13: 9780472030491
Print-ISBN-10: 0472030493

Page Count: 304
Illustrations: 4 B&W photographs, 6 tables
Publication Year: 2002

Series Title: Law, Meaning, and Violence

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