ABSTRACT

After years of intense debate, same-sex marriage has become a legal reality in many countries around the globe. As same-sex marriage laws spread, Queer Families and Relationships After Marriage Equality asks: What will queer families and relationships look like on the ground?

Building on a major conference held in 2016 entitled "After Marriage: The Future of LGBTQ Politics and Scholarship," this collection draws from critical and intersectional perspectives to explore this question. Comprising academic papers, edited transcripts of conference panels, and interviews with activists working on the ground, this collection presents some of the first works of empirical scholarship and first-hand observation to assess the realities of queer families and relationships after same-sex marriage. Including a number of chapters focused on married same-sex couples as well as several on other queer family types, the volume considers the following key questions: What are the material impacts of marriage for same-sex couples? Is the spread of same-sex marriage pushing LGBTQ people toward more "normalized" types of relationships that resemble heterosexual marriage? And finally, how is the spread of same-sex marriage shaping other queer relationships that do not fit the marriage model?

By presenting scholarly research and activist observations on these questions, this volume helps translate queer critiques advanced during the marriage debates into a framework for ongoing critical research in the after-marriage period.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

For better or for worse? Relational landscapes in the time of same-sex marriage 1

part I|42 pages

The material impacts of same-sex marriage

chapter 1|14 pages

Living lesbian relationships in Madrid

Queering life and families in times of straight living fossils 1

chapter 2|15 pages

For the richer, not the poorer

Marriage equality, financial security, and the promise of queer economic justice 1

chapter 3|11 pages

“What makes our conflicts queer?”

An interview with Rachel Epstein

part II|51 pages

Is marriage normalizing LGBTQ relationships?

chapter 4|14 pages

From public debate to private decision

The normalization of marriage among critical LGBQ people

chapter 6|13 pages

Simultaneous assimilation and innovation in the construction of queer families

Married same-sex couples in Cape Town, South Africa

chapter 7|15 pages

From homonormativity to polynormativity

Representing consensual non-monogamy

part III|85 pages

The present and future of relational diversity

chapter 9|9 pages

Making connections

An interview with Ignacio G. Rivera

chapter 10|14 pages

Beyond the sex–love–marriage alignment

Xinghun among queer people in mainland China 1

chapter 11|18 pages

“Zoning is a way of sorting people”

An interview with the Scarborough Family

chapter 12|14 pages

Queer street families

Place-making and community among LGBT youth of color in iconic gay neighborhoods