Fragmentation and Consolidation in the Law of Marriage and Same-Sex Relationships

Recent demands to recognize same-sex relationships have spurred unprecedented innovation in family law. From its earliest foundations, family law in the United States has regarded marriage as the exclusive pathway to legitimate family life. Beginning with Hawaii in the mid-1990s, however, and extending more recently to all corners of the United States, attempts to find a middle ground in the divisive debate over same-sex marriage have led to the creation of a patchwork of alternative forms of legal status for committed intimate partners: reciprocal beneficiaries, designated beneficiaries, domestic partnerships, and civil unions. Significantly, government is now actively facilitating alternative choices by formalizing family structures outside of mainstream marriage, raising the prospect—feared by some and welcomed by others—that marriage may lose its place as the polestar of family organization. This article surveys recent developments in the law of marriage and same-sex relationships in the United States and suggests that the current burst of innovation in creating alternative family forms for same-sex couples may ultimately prove to be more transitional than transformative. Rather than ushering in a new era of fragmented family law, in which marriage is relegated to just one choice among many on a menu of family forms, the current proliferation of marriage alternatives is likely to be chiefly significant for easing the transition to same-sex marriage

Consolidation (business) · Economics · Family law · Mainstream · Marriage law · Political science · Same sex · Sociology · Transformative learning · Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction · Gender Studies · Law · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes · Reproductive Health and Technologies

• Homomilitarism

  Keith L Camacho•Radical History Review•2015

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