ciated with marriage-related benefits, the political reason that marriage is the issue most likely to end discrimination against lesbian and gay men, and the philosophical explanation that lesbians and gay men should have the right to choose to marry and that providing that right will be the principal means toward eliminating marriage’s sexist trappings.# Nan Hunter argues that legalizing lesbian and gay marriage will destabilize marriage’s gendered definition by disrupting the link between gender and marriage. She analyzes both marriage and domestic partnership against the feminist inquiry of how law reinforces power imbalances within the family and views same-sex marriage as a means to subvert gender-based power differentials.# Mary Dunlap finds that same-sex marriage is constructive when lesbians and gay men are encountering gay-bashing resulting from Bowers. She examines the values underlying the push for same-sex marriage (such as equality, autonomy, fairness, privacy, and diversity) and encourages expansion of the marriage debate outside legal circles. One way to expand this debate is to read the interviews of lesbian and gay couples some of who have chosen to have public ceremonies their commitment and some of whom have chosen to keep their commitment private.#The debate continues to rage, without resolving the debate here, it seems clear that obtaining the right to marry will drastically impact the lesbian and gay civil rights movement. My response to this debate is best expressed in the following short essay, of a lesbian woman explaining the vital political change that can result from the simple (and personal) act of same-sex marriage. Yes, I know that weddings can be “heterosexual rituals” of the most repressive and repugnant kind. Yes, I know that weddings historically symbolized the loss of the woman’s self into that of her husband’s, a denial of her existence completely. Yes, I...
