ABSTRACT
It is no coincidence that the 'family values' debate emerges in the context of growing discussion and examination of the multiplicity of family forms. In an era when both the feminist and the gay movements have challenged the centrality and desirability of the heterosexual nuclear family, the phrase 'family values' emerges to set up an impenetrable dividing line between 'us' and 'them'. Into this strange register of the visible enters the soundbite-ish 'gay marriage debate', a debate played out in the pages of gay journals but also on people's TV sets, in glossy mainstream magazines, in prime-time news specials, in legal argumentation, in everyday talk. Many gays, such as conservative writer and former editor of the New Republic Andrew Sullivan, strongly believe that the right to marry is crucial to the 'maturity' of the gay movement. For many lesbians and gays, certainly those of the pre-Stonewall era, gayness itself seemed to close off the possibility of having children.
