Amazon.com Review
In this timely study, based on a doctoral dissertation, sociologist Gretchen A. Stiers presents the results of 90 face-to-face interviews with lesbians and gay men on the subject of commitment ceremonies and same-sex marriage. "At their core," she argues, "same-sex ceremonies are rites of integration as well as rites of passage; their two primary objectives are the creation of family and the building of community." Although her reliance on long, chatty quotations jars at times with her academic prose, Stiers manages to convey the surprising breadth of responses in the gay and lesbian communities today to issues such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and its importance for gay rights in general. Most lesbians and gays believe they should have the legal right to marry, for example, yet when asked if they would consider marriage themselves if the laws changed, Stiers's subjects replied in unromantic terms: "Maybe for the legal and economic benefits"; "We could sign up for the family medical plan"; "Yes ... we could get matching towels and all sorts of appliances and things." --Regina Marler
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
According to Stiers, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at West Virginia University, lesbians and gay men believe they should have the right to marry even if most are not sure they would do it themselves. Her report is based on firsthand interviews conducted in 1993 and 1994 with 90 residents of Massachusetts who self-identified as either lesbian, gay or bisexual. Although her sample seems too small and well-educated to use as a basis for broad assertions about lesbian and gay attitudes, Stiers found the results fascinating since, as recently as the 1970s, lesbians and gays "decried the oppressive nature of marriage in general and advocated that it be abolished." She also reports on how respondents defined love, commitment and family; their reasons for wanting to be married; and whether they supported such traditional elements of courtship and marriage as engagements, wedding showers and church weddings. She supplements her data and conclusions with a discussion of the series of legal cases in Hawaii in which same-sex couples sought the right to marry (which ultimatelu provoked the national debate that led to the 1996 congressional Defense of Marriage Act, barring federal recognition of same-sex marriages and signed by President Clinton. Stiers's sometimes stodgy academese makes it unlikely this adapted doctoral dissertation will realize her aim to reach a wide audience, though it makes a useful contribution to the field of lesbian and gay studies.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
