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Full-Text Articles in Law
Domestic Partnership And Same-Sex Relationships: A Marketplace Innovation And A Less Than Perfect Institutional Choice, Nancy J. Knauer
Domestic Partnership And Same-Sex Relationships: A Marketplace Innovation And A Less Than Perfect Institutional Choice, Nancy J. Knauer
Nancy J. Knauer
The struggle for the recognition and protection of same-sex relationships is at the forefront of the contemporary gay and lesbian civil rights agenda. Whereas the push for same-sex marriage and parenting rights has met with mixed results in the courts and the legislatures, an impressive array of organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, colleges, nonprofit corporations, and municipalities, now extend benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees. This level of success raises a provocative question regarding the potential role of institutional employers in the larger on the agenda for progressive social change. Domestic partnership benefits are a creature of the …
Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers
Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers
Articles
Lesbian couples who break up will find themselves in an awkward position under the law for two separable but related reasons. The first is that, because they were unmarried, they are subjected by the law to much the same uneven and ambivalent treatment to which unmarried heterosexual couples are subjected. The second, of course, is that they are gay or lesbian and thus regarded with special disfavor even in some states that have become more tolerant of unmarried heterosexual relationships. As a law teacher who is gay and who writes about family law issues relating to gay men and lesbians, …
Sexual Dis-Orientation: Transgendered People And Same-Sex Marriage, Mary I. Coombs
Sexual Dis-Orientation: Transgendered People And Same-Sex Marriage, Mary I. Coombs
Articles
In this Article, Professor Coombs argues that the debate about same-sex marriage has wrongfully ignored transgendered people and their relationships. She provides an overview of arguments made by opponents of same-sex marriage, such as tradition, procreation, child-rearing, and family values. She then examines cases involving transsexual marriages and uses this analysis to deconstruct the same-sex marriage debate. Professor Coombs argues that an honest consideration of transgendered people and their relationships forces a re-evaluation of arguments against same-sex marriage and disrupts the gendered patriarchy on which traditional marriage rests. Marriage should be seen as a relationship between two people, regardless of …
Universalism, Liberal Theory, And The Problem Of Gay Marriage, Robin West
Universalism, Liberal Theory, And The Problem Of Gay Marriage, Robin West
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Liberalism, both contemporary and classical, rests at heart on a theory of human nature, and at the center of that theory lies one core commitment: all human beings, qua human beings, are essentially rational. There are two equally important implications. The first we might call the "universalist" assumption: all human beings, not just some, are rational -- not just white people, men, freemen, property owners, aristocrats, or citizens, but all of us. In this central, defining respect, then, we are all the same: we all share in this universal, natural, human trait. The second implication, we might call the "individualist" …
Heteronormativity And The Federal Tax Code, Nancy J. Knauer
Heteronormativity And The Federal Tax Code, Nancy J. Knauer
Nancy J. Knauer
Proponents of same-sex marriage demand equal marriage rights as a matter of fundamental human dignity and as a means to gain certain legal benefits and protections. The ability to file joint federal income tax returns is invariably listed as one of the benefits associated with marriage. This outsider perspective contradicts the popular notion that the income tax is anti-marriage and offers a useful vantage point from which to analyze the marital provisions of the federal tax code, the treatment of the provisions in tax scholarship, and legislative proposals for "pro-family" tax reform. The joint filing provisions are just one example …