One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

Acknowledgments

| ix Acknowledgments This book owes a great debt to the Oklahomans who were willing to share with me their experiences and understandings of marriage politics and ideology in the United States. First, I want to thank all of the staff at the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative for their willingness to allow me to study the initiative so closely and for welcoming my presence at events, activities, and workshops. A special thanks to George Young who opened his church to me and was incredibly supportive of my research. I also thank other church leaders I interviewed for their support and for welcoming me into their churches. I am indebted to the lesbians and gay Oklahomans who shared with me their experiences of discrimination and their dreams for a better Oklahoma, many of whom became friends and will always occupy a place in my heart. Finally, I want to thank the participants, the teachers, the students, and all of the others in Oklahoma who took time out from their busy schedules to share with me their experiences of marriage classes. During my residence in Oklahoma, there were many individuals who offered assistance and support. The friends I made in Oklahoma were fond of reminding me that a person arriving in Los Angeles with no contacts and little information about the city or state would not fare nearly as well as I did on my arrival as a nonnative in Oklahoma. I thank Louise Goldberg and Mary Reynolds for helping me to settle in my first few months in Oklahoma. The faculty at the University of Oklahoma were always helpful, especially the sociology chair, Craig St. John, who hired me to teach for a semester and who was incredibly supportive of my research. I owe special thanks to Allan Brown for his friendship and support while I was in Oklahoma. Karen Weldon and Susanne Bain were incredibly gracious and kind. Joan and Carolyn were always helpful, and a special thanks to Toby Jenkins for his support of my research. I am deeply grateful to my mentors who have made this book possible. I can’t express enough my deepest gratitude to Judith Stacey for her steadfast support and mentorship. This book would not have been possible without x | Acknowledgments her. I thank Michael Messner, whose encouragement throughout my graduate education and beyond has been indispensable. I send a special thanks to Sharon Hays, who gave amazing input on this manuscript in its earlier form. Thank you to Don Miller and Jon Miller for their support, and the support from the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California for a generous grant that funded my research in Oklahoma. I also thank David Cruz for his contributions on the legal aspects of marriage. The research for this project was also supported through a Letters of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Southern California. I also want to express my appreciation to the Association for the Sociology of Religion for awarding me the Fichter Research Grant, to the Center for Feminist Research for a travel grant, and to the Department of Sociology at USC for numerous research grants and other financial support. A postdoctoral fellowship at Rice University enabled me to take extra time to revise this work. I thank Elizabeth Long and Holly Heard for reading the manuscript and for offering such helpful advice concerning revisions. Ilene Kalish, my editor at New York University Press, showed great enthusiasm for the project and provided me invaluable feedback and encouragement . An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared originally in Gender & Society 23, no. 1 (2009). My thanks to the anonymous reviewers at NYU Press and at Gender & Society, all of whom offered critical feedback. I especially thank Dana Britton for offering constructive criticism and lively debate, and her managing editorial staff for all their assistance. I am grateful to other numerous people who have offered input and support while I was conceptualizing and working on this project. I thank my colleagues at McMaster who have been supportive. Much appreciation goes to Neil McLaughlin, Tina Fetner, Charlene Miall, and Dorothy Pawluch. Many thanks to Verta Taylor, Leila Rupp, Kathleen Hull, Amy Binder, Celine-Marie Pascale, Shari Dworkin, James Thing, and Cheryl Cooky. Finally, my abundant thanks to my family for their encouragement and support. I thank Rosi and Dwight Edwards for encouraging me to pursue my dreams and for being amazing role models. Finally, I want to thank my many friends...