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Judicial Impediments To Legislating Equality For Same-Sex Couples In The European Union, Bruce Carolan

Articles

In the United States, the state and federal courts often has been the first port of call for activists hoping to advance the cause of same-sex couples. State courts, in particular, have ruled on occasion that guarantees of equal rights or due process contained in state constitutions require recognition of same-sex marriage or civil unions. These court decisions, in turn, have sparked a legislative backlash. Legislators and voters have rejected these court decisions by amending state constitutions to limit the rights of same-sex couples. The European Union represents, in some ways, the mirror image of the United States experience. The …

Gay Is Good: The Moral Case For Marriage Equality And More, Chai R. Feldblum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The struggle for marriage equality in this country is ripe for an intervention. If the effort continues along in the manner in which it has been headed, gay couples may or may not succeed in gaining access to civil marriage. But even if gay couples succeed in "getting marriage," the gay rights movement may have missed a critical opportunity-a chance to make a positive moral case for gay sex and gay couples. In other words, it will have missed the opportunity to argue that "gay is good."

Moreover, to the extent that the struggle for marriage equality focuses solely on …