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Full-Text Articles in Law
Civil Rites: The Gay Marriage Controversy In Historical Perspective, Joanna L. Grossman
Civil Rites: The Gay Marriage Controversy In Historical Perspective, Joanna L. Grossman
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This short essay, written for a volume that celebrates and reflects on Lawrence M. Friedman’s work in legal history and legal culture, explores the modern controversy about same-sex marriage through a historical lens. The legalization of same-sex marriage by five states, and the express condemnation of it by more than forty others, has reintroduced the age-old problem of non-uniform marriage laws and the complicated interactions that follow. This modern story - a challenge to traditional marriage, a divisive moral debate, and the emergence of strong oppositional forces that are stuck, at least temporarily, but perhaps indefinitely, in a kind of …
Fear And Loathing In Massachusetts: Same-Sex Marriage And Some Lessons From The History Of Marriage And Divorce, Joanna L. Grossman
Fear And Loathing In Massachusetts: Same-Sex Marriage And Some Lessons From The History Of Marriage And Divorce, Joanna L. Grossman
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
When Massachusetts became the first and only state in the union to issue legal marriage licenses to same-sex couples last May, the state's Governor, Mitt Romney, warned that "Massachusetts should not become the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage." Romney's warning makes sense only as a reference to Las Vegas' reputation for the "quickie" divorce - a heavily disparaged historical practice in which residents of other states would seek a divorce in Nevada because their home states would not grant them one, at least not on the terms or at the pace they desired. This essay retraces the history of divorce …