Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Changing Hearts And Minds: The Politics Of Sentimentality And The Cultural Production Of The Gay Family In New Mexicos Same-Sex Marriage Debate, Nicolae Lavinia

Anthropology ETDs

Starting in February 2004, in the aftermath of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsoms authorization of city clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, same-sex marriage and LGBT families moved to the center of American politics. In the same month New Mexico succeeded in making its own mark on the national debate over same-sex marriage as Victoria Dunlap, the Sandoval County clerk, issued marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The resulting sixty-four same-sex marriages incited New Mexico gay and lesbian activism around the issue of marriage and launched civil rights and moral debates that dominated the New …