You’re not in any hurry. The ring’s
on your finger, the engagement was just announced, and you both feel
like you’ve got plenty of time. Now’s your chance to enjoy the
process of getting married and planning your future together.
But Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality by Katherine
Franke asks the question: why marry at all?
When president George Washington died,
his will stipulated that his slaves should be given their freedom
after the death of his wife, Martha, who inherited them.
This, says Katherine Franke,
accidentally “put a price on” Martha’s head, and revealed
Washington’s acknowledgment of one of the complexities of slavery:
marriage among the Washington slaves meant that freeing his without
freeing hers would break up families.
This issue, and others before
and after the Civil War, illustrates how “many of the experiences
of African-Americans held out a message to the same-sex marriage
movement today.”
Throughout American history, Franke
says, the “rules” of marriage for non-white or gay individuals
hid a double-edged sword of enhanced rights and enforced matrimonial
laws complicated by the pre-Emancipation fluidity of relationships
and looser definitions of “marriage” within early
African-American communities.
The current lack of awareness about
state marriage laws in today’s LGBT community presents a similar
problem.
The bottom line that’s often not
emphasized: when a couple marries, the state suddenly “acquires a
legal interest in your relationship.” Now, as then, marriage may
also be legally “forced” on a couple: in the case of former
slaves, to gain benefits in wartime; for LGBT couples, to continue
receiving health-insurance benefits.
And beyond all of that,
marriage, as Franke reminds readers, has never offered a guarantee
from discrimination.
Is it possible, Franke asks, that “the
inability to marry creates a kind of freedom from the ‘bonds’ of
marriage?” At a time when the marriage rate in the black community
is low and LGBT parents are demanding new legal definitions of
“family,” will marriage become antiquated?
Or is the “freedom”
to marry just another way for society to meddle in the lives of
marginalized individuals?
To be sure, Wedlocked is not
exactly a fun weekend read that you’d take to the beach. Fun, no.
Interesting, absolutely.
It’s also quite thought-provoking.
Author Katherine Franke is the director of the Center for Gender and
Sexuality Law at Columbia University, and in this book she asks hard
questions in between her jaw-dropping history lessons and arguments
that marriage is both burden and boon to anyone who’s not white and
straight.
That’s not to say that the institution is dead; instead,
Franke wonders if, of all the civil rights that were denied former
slaves and gay individuals, marriage may have been the oddest choice
to become the hallmark legal battle.
But which other right would’ve been
better? That question seems open for discussion—just one of many
questions that readers are given to ponder in this heavy-duty,
scholarly book. But be aware: Wedlocked, now in paperback, can’t
be enjoyed and contemplated if you’re in any hurry.
Purchase this book, CLICK BELOW:
Original review on: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com
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