Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con: A Reader

by Andrew Sullivan, Joseph Landau

With same-sex marriage igniting a firestorm of controversy in the press and in the courts, in legislative chambers and in living rooms, Andrew Sullivan, a pioneering voice in the debate, has brought together two thousand years of argument in an anthology of historic inclusiveness and evenhandedness. Among the selections included

- The 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in support of same-sex marriage
- Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion and Justice Scalia’s dissent in the 2003 landmark Supreme Court decision striking down anti-sodomy laws
- President George W. Bush’s call for a Federal Marriage Amendment
- John Kerry’s Senate speech urging defeat of the Defense of Marriage Act
- Harvard historian Nancy F. Cott's testimony before the Vermont House Judiciary Committee
- Reverend Peter J. Gomes on the distinction between civil and religious marriage
- Stanley Kurtz on the politics of gay marriage
- Evan Wolfson on the popularity of the right to marry among lesbians and gay men
- New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks’ conservative case for same-sex marriage
- Excerpts from Genesis, Leviticus, and other essential biblical texts
- Aristophanes’s classic theory of same-sex love, from Plato’s Symposium
- Hannah Arendt on marriage as a fundamental right
- Camille Paglia’s skepticism

Representing the full range of perspectives and the most cogent and arresting arguments, Same-Sex Marriage is essential to a balanced understanding of the most pressing cultural question we face today.

Genres: Politics, Gay, Queer, LGBT, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Marriage

380 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 1997

About the author

Andrew Michael Sullivan is a British blogger, author, and political commentator. He is a speaker at universities, colleges, and civic organizations in the United States, and a guest on national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. Born and raised in England, he has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Sullivan is sometimes considered a pioneer in political weblog journalism, since he was one of the first prominent political journalists in the United States to start his own personal blog. Sullivan wrote his blog for a year at Time Magazine, shifting on 1 February 2007 to The Atlantic, where it received approximately 40 million page views in the first year. He is the former editor of The New Republic.

Reviews

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Sullivan edited this book, and I was pleased with his fairness in selecting the opponents to his view that were to be represented here. This was a very helpful book, with very capable writers on both sides. Worthwhile.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof. It's good, as in representative of all the intellect, ignorance, justice-seeking, fear-mongering, passion, and hatred that the topic ignites in the United States. Everything from religious bickering to Congressional hearings to law journals are there. The book is over ten years old and considering its now yellowing pages, the debate hasn't evolved much except that the right has adopted the new strategy of claiming victimhood by the label "homophobic" and by the religious intolerance gay rights supposedly promote. As infuriating as it is to see such a disingenuous claim of oppression, I do believe it signifies progress in the right direction when explicit vitriol becomes (somewhat) unacceptable in a political debate about human rights.

Content aside, Sullivan should have fired his editor because, while perhaps glib, the cover is implicitly offensive.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite an interesting read. This book was published in 1997 on the heels of DOMA being passed. 17 years later I am reading this book as DOMA has recently been struck down. During the writing of this book 0 states recognized gay marriage. Now in 2014 17 states allow gay marriage with 2 more states that have suspended rulings.

It is amazing to see how fast things can change. This book provides two sides of the coin when it comes to gay marriage. We get some research about gay unions in other cultures from the past. We get writings about arguments that are still used today, but are slowly fading. The book is good, but not great. It provides a variety of arguments on both sides, but it is difficult without there being a proper debate. The topics tend to jump and it can be a bit difficult to keep track of all the reasons.

Interestingly enough 30 pages were taken out of my book. They didn't appear to have been torn out they just seem to have been completely missing! Otherwise this was a good book and an interesting look back to this debate pre-gay marriage explosion in the 2000s

[Darin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in the late 1990s when the Defense of Marriage Act so some of the specifics are dated. The editor, Andrew Sullivan, is apparently pro same-sex marriage, but the book is a good example of presenting both sides of the argument.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinated by this book in college. Definitely have to read it again.

[A.L. Bellettiere · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think that this is a book for those more willing to argue or argue for this topic to same sex marriage disbelievers. Maybe I was interested in seeing what people had to say but as I went farther into this, it reiterated what some of us generally have assumed, not just of homosexual life but of transgender life. Truth is, it's always been around. The book lost my interest when an individual started critiquing another's point on whether something was a same sex union or marriage. I don't have the patience to read what feels to me like two people bickering over terminology.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

It seems that marriage isn't about some people getting together to sign a contract, but rather a swinger orgy in which many other people are ready to butt in and set the rules decide who has sex with whom, at what time, probably in what position, and so on. All at precisely zero personal liability for the busybodies from the sex orgy.

[Katrina Sauvé · Rating 1 out of 5]

far too dense/non-fiction-y for my taste