Same-Sex Marriage Reading List
Mission To Matrimony: The Gay Marriage Proposal Fight for Marriage
Jerri Sherr, Director, 2005
The film brings you the jubilant celebrations in Cambridge, Mass. on May 17, 2004 as the first marriage certificates are given to same-sex couples. It introduces you to two couples and their children going about their business, raising their kids.
Gay Marriage and Interracial Marriage
The Common Sense Foundation, 2005
Opponents to same-sex marriage often claim that same-sex marriage would be "unnatural," "evil," based on "illicit sex" rather than commitment and "contrary to God's will." All of these arguments were used to condemn interracial marriage in the United States as recently as the 1970s. This study shows that opposition to same-sex marriage is grounded in misunderstanding and fear and that opponents of marriage equality often use the same language and imagery used by opponents of interracial marriage. The study examined court cases in several states, including North Carolina and Virginia, and publications on marriage as well as Christian teachings.
The Impact of Allowing Same-Sex Couples to Marry on California's Budget
Brad Sears and M.V. Lee Badgett, UCLA and IGLSS, 2004
A study co-authored by Brad Sears of UCLA 's Williams Project and M.V. Lee Badgett of the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies (IGLSS), estimates that same-sex marriage will have a significant and positive impact on the California economy. According to the study, allowing same-sex couples to marry in California will result in a net gain of $22.3 to $25.2 million each year, for the State budget.
The study is available from the Williams Project website
That's a Family
Debra Chasnoff, Director, Women's Educational Media, 2000
A film for children in grades K-6 that takes a tour from a child's perspective through a range of family structures, including those with gay and lesbian parents, multiracial parents, divorced parents and single parents or guardians. "That's A Family!" was directed by Academy Award-winner Debra Chasnoff, who also directed the acclaimed film, "It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School." The video is distributed with a curriculum and discussion guide that offers teachers and counselors suggestions for classroom activities.
For more information, contact Women's Educational Media. Email: wemfilms@womedia.org. Phone: 415/641-4616.
Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship
Amy Strongheart, Robert Gross (Eds.), Haworth, 1997
This book will inform you as well as remind you that same-sex unions bring much cause for celebration and that religion and homosexuality are not mutually exclusive
Tying the Knot
Jim de Sève, 1049 Films
Tying the Knot is a film that digs deeply into the meaning of marriage today. From an historical trip to the Middle Ages, to gay hippies storming the Manhattan marriage bureau in 1971, this eye-opening exploration of the embattled institution looks at rights, privilege and love as gay activists and right-wing politicos lock horns in the fight for Marriage.