Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America

Jonathan Rauch

Macmillan, Apr 7, 2004 - Social Science - 207 pages

A leading Washington journalist argues that gay marriage is the best way to preserve and protect society's most essential institution

Two people meet and fall in love. They get married, they become upstanding members of their community, they care for each other when one falls ill, they grow old together. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, says Jonathan Rauch, and that's the point. If the two people are of the same sex, why should this chain of events be any less desirable? Marriage is more than a bond between individuals; it also links them to the community at large. Excluding some people from the prospect of marriage not only is harmful to them, but is also corrosive of the institution itself.
The controversy over gay marriage has reached a critical point in American political life as liberals and conservatives have begun to mobilize around this issue, pro and con. But no one has come forward with a compelling, comprehensive, and readable case for gay marriage-until now.
Jonathan Rauch, one of our most original and incisive social commentators, has written a clear and honest manifesto explaining why gay marriage is important-even crucial-to the health of marriage in America today. Rauch grounds his argument in commonsense, mainstream values and confronting the social conservatives on their own turf. Gay marriage, he shows, is a "win-win-win" for strengthening the bonds that tie us together and for remaining true to our national heritage of fairness and humaneness toward all.

What people are saying

Review: Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America

User Review  - Anne - Goodreads

I never thought I would see a book in favor of same-sex marriage that I disagreed with, but Jonathan Rauch managed it. His basic premise is that marriage is the fundamental institution of society; it ...

Review: Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America

User Review  - Gwen - Goodreads

Source: The Daily Dish Library: 306.848 Rauch

Contents

• The Imagination Gap: 1
• What Is Marriage For?: 11
• Accept No Substitutes: 29
• How Gays Will Benefit: 55
• How Straights Will Benefit: 72
• How Marriage Will Benefit: 86
• Married Without Children: 104
• Anything Goes: 123
• Men Behaving Badly: 138
• The Debt to Tradition: 159
• Getting It Right: 172
• A Golden Anniversary: 192
• Index: 197

About the author

Jonathan Rauch is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and a senior writer and columnist for National Journal. He is the author of several books on public policy, culture, and economics, including most recently Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working. He is a writer in residence at the Brookings Institution, and his work has appeared in The New Republic, The Economist, Harper's, Fortune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate, among other publications. He lives outside Washington, D.C.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America
• Author: Jonathan Rauch
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2004
• ISBN: 0805076336, 9780805076332
• Length: 207 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / Marriage; Political Science / Comparative Politics; Political Science / General; Social Science / Gay Studies; Social Science / Lesbian Studies; Social Science / Sociology / Marriage & Family