ABSTRACT
There are three major positions on marriage within gay commentary: the liberal, the queer, and the neo-conservative. This chapter briefly examines each, though it should be remembered that these are ideal types; many individual writers blend elements of more than one of these positions in their writing. The liberal legal position has been presented most persuasively by Andrew Koppelman, who argues that the prevention of same-sex marriage is a form of sex discrimination, and by Evan Gerstmann, who focuses on the fundamentality of the right to marry. The liberal argument often rests on the unarticulated premise that gays and lesbians are just like everyone else—that their sexual orientation is but one small and irrelevant difference between them and their neighbors. Thus, paradoxically, gay marriage—which queer theorists condemn as assimilationist—may in fact be a radicalizing institution for American heterosexuality. Liberals are clearly more accurately reflecting the desires of the community about which they speak.
