We Will Get What We Ask For: Why Legalizing Gay and Lesbian Marriage Will Not Dismantle the Legal Structure of Gender in Every Marriage
![handle is hein.journals/valr79 and id is 1545 raw text is: WE WILL GET WHAT WE ASK FOR: WHY LEGALIZING
GAY AND LESBIAN MARRIAGE WILL NOT
DISMANTLE THE LEGAL STRUCTURE OF
GENDER IN EVERY MARRIAGE*
Nancy D. Polikoff t
THE arguments for and against making marriage a priority for the
lesbian and gay rights movement have been presented extensively.
Attorney Tom Stoddard justifies aggressively pursuing same-sex mar-
riage on three bases. First, Stoddard cites practical reasons, including
the right to obtain direct economic benefits (e.g., social security bene-
fits, health insurance), the advantages of tax and immigration laws,
and protection of the relationship from outside interference.I Stod-
dard next addresses the political justifications, asserting that only by
marrying will gay and lesbian couples validate the significance of their
relationships. In Stoddard's estimation, marriage is ... the issue
most likely to lead ultimately to a world free from discrimination
against lesbians and gay men.2 Finally, Stoddard articulates a
number of philosophical arguments to convince skeptics that the
desirability of the right to marry does not require that one approve of
that institution's current state. Indeed, Stoddard suggests that legal-
izing same-sex unions might even transform marriage into a state
divested of its sexist base.3
In contrast, Stoddard's colleague, Paula Ettelbrick, contends that
[m]arriage runs contrary to two of the primary goals of the lesbian
and gay movement: the affirmation of gay identity and culture and the
* Nan D. Hunter, Marriage, Law and Gender: A Feminist Inquiry, I Law & Sexuality 9,
18-19 (1991). This phrase forms the core of Professor Hunter's argument urging lesbian and
gay rights activists to make the legalization of same-sex marriage a priority for the lesbian and
gay civil rights movement. See id.
t Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, The American University. I would like to
thank Meg Ciszek for research assistance and Lauren Taylor for editorial assistance.
I Thomas B. Stoddard, Why Gay People Should Seek the Right to Marry, in Lesbian and
Gay Marriage 13, 14-16 (Suzanne Sherman ed., 1992).
2 Id. at 17.
3 Id. at 18-19.
1535](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/valr79&div=49&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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