From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage

by Michael J. Klarman

Same-sex marriage has become one of the most volatile issues in American politics. But if most young people support gay marriage, and if there are clear indicators that a substantial majority of the population will soon favor it, why has the outcry against it been so strong?

Bancroft Prize-winning historian and legal expert Michael Klarman offers here an illuminating and engaging account of modern litigation over same-sex marriage. After looking at the treatment of gays in the decades after World War II and the birth of the modern gay rights movement with the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, Klarman describes the key legal cases involving gay marriage and the dramatic political backlashes they ignited. He examines the Hawaii Supreme Court's ruling in 1993, which sparked a vast political backlash--with more than 35 states and Congress enacting defense-of-marriage acts--and the Massachusetts decision in Goodridge in 2003, which inspired more than 25 states to adopt constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. Klarman traces this same pattern--court victory followed by dramatic backlash--through cases in Vermont, California, and Iowa, taking the story right up to the present. He also describes some of the collateral political damage caused by court decisions in
favor of gay marriage--Iowa judges losing their jobs, Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle losing his seat, and the possibly dispositive impact of gay marriage on the 2004 presidential election. But Klarman also notes several ways in which litigation has accelerated the coming of same-sex marriage: forcing people to discuss the issue, raising the hopes and expectations of gay activists, and making other reforms like civil unions seem more moderate by comparison. In the end, Klarman discusses how gay marriage is likely to evolve in the future, predicts how the U.S. Supreme Court might ultimately resolve the issue, and assesses the costs and benefits of activists pursuing social reforms such as gay marriage through the courts.

From the Closet to the Altar will stand as the definitive one-volume history of the tumultuous emergence of same-sex marriage in American life as well as a landmark study of litigation, social reform, and the phenomenon of political backlash to court decisions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Law, Politics, LGBT, Queer

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 7, 2012

About the author

An American legal historian, and constitutional law scholar, Michael Klarman is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Harvard Law School.

Reviews

[Dusty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up From the Closet to the Altar directly after I put down We Do!: American Leaders Who Supported Marriage Equality, and the two books made for intriguing bedfellows. They both recall the struggle for LGBTQ rights, tracing the path it has taken from the radical activism of the Stonewall rioters and Harvey Milk through the recent and fairly mainstream push for the national legalization of same-sex marriage. But their approaches are very different. We Do! assembles a series of political speeches, in effect dramatizing the campaign for marriage equality, while From the Closet to the Altar pays obsessive detail to the various court cases and legislative initiatives that the speeches facilitated or responded to. The first book favors grand rhetorical flourishes, while the second one reads rather more like an encyclopedia. If, in the end, I prefer the speeches, it is not because they can exist independently of the history that Klarman so scrupulously recollects, but because I can imagine myself reading them again someday. For all its brilliance and timeliness, this other book is unlikely to appeal to the non-specialist's sense of urgency and righteousness.

[John Suddath · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like the detailed history of court cases, legal strategies, and politics, then this books gives the most comprehensive review of this issue. If you are not a lawyer or gay, this may be more than you ever wanted to know. It summarizes the snow-ball effect of the decisions of the various courts, and it demonstrates how quickly this social issue evolved. It happened much quicker than the civil rights actions of the 1960's because it focused more on the courts than the Congress or the state legislatures that were dragged along following changes in public opinion. The book cities numerous public opinion polls and documents how quickly they changed.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very illuminating legal (and political) history of the same-sex marriage movement in the US. The book is also wonderfully engaging...

[Bonnie Tesch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was way too heavy on statistics (particularly from opinion polls), and pretty bad at sticking to a timeline for something as data heavy as it was. Would not recommend.

[Mills College Library]

346.73016 K634 2013