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What's In A Name? The Case For The Disestablishment Of Marriage, Carolyn A. Mcconnell

Carolyn A McConnell

The most remarkable social change of the past two decades has been the movement for gay rights focused on the right to marry. The movement for gay marriage has made urgent (and indeed is bringing to the Supreme Court) the question of what the right to marry might be and what marriage is. Marriage is, among other things, a sacred and expressive institution imbued with robust notions of the good life, but it is also a state license. That is, in our society, marriage is established as religion is not, and this places marriage in deep tension with liberal ideals. …

What's In A Name? The Case For The Disestablishment Of Marriage, Carolyn A. Mcconnell

Carolyn A McConnell

The most remarkable social change of the past two decades has been the movement for gay rights focused on the right to marry. The movement for gay marriage has made urgent (and indeed is bringing to the Supreme Court) the question of what the right to marry might be and what marriage is. Marriage is, among other things, a sacred and expressive institution imbued with robust notions of the good life, but it is also a state license. That is, in our society, marriage is established as religion is not.

This paper addresses the question begged by centuries of American …