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Gay Marriage: An American and Feminist Dilemma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Ann Ferguson
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Abstract

Gay marriage highlights a contradiction in American national identity: if gay marriage is supported, the normative status of the heterosexual nuclear family is undermined, while if not, the civil rights of homosexuals are undermined. This essay discusses the feminist dilemma of whether to support gay marriage to promote these individual civil rights or whether to critique marriage as a part of the patriarchal system that oppresses women.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 22 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Writing Against Heterosexism , Winter 2007 , pp. 39 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by Hypatia, Inc.

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