Of Outlaws and In-Laws: The ‘Ambivalent Gift’ of Legal Legitimation

Abstract

In Chapter 4, I highlighted the two sets of arguments that I consider to be the strongest in terms of potentially overcoming the feminist critiques of marriage in the context of same-sex marriage. In Chapter 5, I responded to the first set of arguments, which suggest that it might transform the institution. In this chapter, I focus on the second set of arguments for same-sex marriage, which highlight the need for positive recognition of same-sex relationships and/or suggest that same-sex marriage may have a transgressive impact on the institution of marriage. I use the terms transformation and transgression in distinct, though linked, ways. Transformation refers to (perhaps fundamental) changes within the marriage model, such as the egalitarianism that Hunter and others suggest will result from same-sex marriage. In contrast, transgression of the marriage model would involve challenging the model in a way that goes beyond or destabilizes the existing parameters of marriage, or queers marriage.¹

There is no question that gays and lesbians are threatened by the violence of public erasure, but the decision to counter that violence must be careful not to reinstall another in its place. Which version of lesbian or gay ought to be rendered visible, and which internal exclusions will that rendering visible institute? (Butler, 1993, p. 311)