Law Commons^™

The Other Marriage Equality Problem, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

This article introduces the term “the other marriage equality problem” to invite attention to a marriage equality issue distinct from gay men's and lesbians’ access to the institution of civil marriage. That problem is captured in warnings about the growing class-based marriage divide and the “diverging destinies” of children that flow from these emerging patterns of family life, sometimes referred to as “the reproduction of inequalities.” Growing family inequality warrants attention for many reasons, including the crucial role that families, along with other institutions of civil society, play in sustaining the American experiment in “ordered liberty.” Strikingly, such warnings coexist …