04497nam 2200553 450 991046408850332120220111232811.00-19-992211-X(CKB)3230000000204872(StDuBDS)AH24969404(MiAaPQ)EBC5746877(MiAaPQ)EBC1026819(Au-PeEL)EBL1026819(OCoLC)958574817(EXLCZ)99323000000020487220190620d2013 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierFrom the closet to the altar courts, backlash, and the struggle for same-sex marriage /Michael J. KlarmanOxford University Press paperback edition.Oxford :Oxford University Press,[2013]©20131 online resource (xii, 276 p. )illFormerly CIP.Uk0-19-936045-6 0-19-992210-1 Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-266) and index.If most young people support gay marriage, and if there are clear indicators that a majority of the population will support it in the very near future, why is the backlash so strong? As Michael Klarman shows in this book, it is because its proponents have adopted a court-centred approach for advancing their cause.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 here offers 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, whichsparked 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 bydramatic 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 ultimatelyresolve 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.Same-sex marriageLaw and legislationUnited StatesHistoryGay couplesLegal status, laws, etcUnited StatesHistorySame-sex marriageLaw and legislationUnited StatesStatesCivil unionsLaw and legislationUnited StatesElectronic books.Same-sex marriageLaw and legislationHistory.Gay couplesLegal status, laws, etc.History.Same-sex marriageLaw and legislationStates.Civil unionsLaw and legislation346.730168Klarman Michael J.751668MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910464088503321From the closet to the altar2459129UNINA