Same-Sex Marriage: Annotated Bibliography

Brotherson, Sean E., and William C. Duncan. "Rebinding the Ties That Bind: Government Efforts to Preserve and Promote Marriage." Family Relations 53.5 (2004): 459-68. Print.

Sean Brotherson of the Department of Child Development and Family Science at North Dakota State University claims that over the last decade or so the government institutions in America have scrambled to uphold and protect the sacred union of marriage. The author faults changes in societal norms, as well as inadequately prepared people entering the realm of marriage for increasing divorce rates, more frequent cohabitation and decline of marriage rate. Brotherson develops his thesis by citing quite a few specific cases of legislations that were thoroughly supported by the government, but were not passed into law. He gives many statistics of marriage and divorce rates over the last decade or so, as well as the plausible reasons these trends are becoming prevalent. For example, Brotherson states that same-sex marriage has not been a genuine issue until the last decade or two, and that it could account for some of the current problem. It is clear that the author is opinionated about this topic, but he backs his argument with solid evidence and statistics. The statistics that Brotherson uses in this article will be very helpful in proving that a declining marriage rate is a genuine problem that should be dealt with steadfastly.

Cherlin, Andrew J. "The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage." Journal of Marriage and Family 66.4 (2004): 848-61. Print.

Andrew Cherlin of the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University concludes that marriage in America has become deinstitutionalized and less essential for social acceptance since the prevalence of c...

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...rding the responsibility of cohabitation to the destruction of marriage.

Strasser, Mark. “Same-Sex Marriage And The Right To Privacy.” Journal of Law & Family Studies. 13.1 (2011): 117-150. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

Mark Strasser, a professor of Law at Capital University Law School, writes an article supporting that the right to same sex marriage would do no harm to the United States and is in fact protected by the constitution. He evaluates recent court cases, many of which involve the issues surrounding children with gay parents, and concludes, “The Court has never suggested that marriage rights are somehow tied to the ability and willingness to have children through the parties’ union. Further, it is implausible to think that any court would ever assert such a tie in any context other than in an attempt to justify a same-sex marriage ban.”