Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry,   ISBN:9780743264594

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Wolfson does an excellent job of explaining how gay marriage is a civil rights issue. He details the flaws in the anti argument.

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This is a book EVERY American should read. Because whether you are gay or love someone who is, Evan puts the issue of 'marriage equality' into a hopeful, just perspective that will have you saying, "It's okay that it's going to take awhile, state by state, but marriage equality WILL happen." Evan does a great job of comparing how the struggle for marriage equality is exactly like other American civil right's struggles that were eventually resolved because Americans are, on the whole, fair-minded and America was founded to be a fair-minded country. Evan also reminds us that we can't just sit back and wait for others to fight for this right - we too must still continue to fight, if we want marriage equality. In fact, if I understand him correctly, the more we fight, and the smarter we fight, the faster marriage equality will become the law of this land! Thanks Evan, for helping me keep my chin up as I do my part to create this reality!

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I just finished Evan Wolfson's Why Marriage Matters, and although I am salivating at the thought of spending the rest of my night immersed in a tirade that focuses on what this book lacks, I will limit myself to describing one and only one glaring deficiency. Here it is. Come election time much of the hoopla surrounding gay marriage rights stems directly from those Christian conservatives that consider themselves among the moral elite. The self-described Christian "moral majority" is surprisingly effective at turning what is actually a civil rights and anti-discrimination issue into a moral issue. Because this is the nature of the one of the most powerful forces that is against us, if we are to put gay marriage rights on firm footing, the foundation must be a moral one. Granted, there is probably little hope for the hardcore dogmatists, but let's suppose they are all old and on the cusp of a trek through the pearly gates of heaven. Aside from those people, I am convinced that social conservatives can be convinced. Now, it would be nice if we could make all our very well-justified legal arguments in favor of gay marriage, be granted our legal rights, and be done with it. But, if we are going to gain any legal ground in conservative states, we must present damn good arguments that show three things: 1) one's sexual orientation is not a lifestyle choice, 2) same-sex sex is not morally wrong, and 3) same-sex marriage is not morally wrong. Wolfson doesn't do either in Why Marriage Matters. I was hoping he would give a point-by-point rebuttal of all the arguments from moral depravity that are flung like mud on groups of people who express a non-heteronormative sexualty, but I was disappointed. Maybe someday soon somebody will do us this service. But enough of that. On a positive note, Wolfson's book was easy to read. On another positive note, he drew strong analogies between the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s and the gay rights movement of the last two decades. One thing that becomes apparrent as we consider the parallels between these two movements is how badly the gay civil rights movement needs a leader like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Do gays have the right to marry? This is emerging as the next civil rights issue to cross the American political scene. Attorney Evan Wolfson answers this question with a resounding yes, and uses this book to back up his answer. His central point is that marriage is a relationship, and being in it can and does bring joy to gay couples just as much as it does to heterosexual couples. And since the Declaration of Independence states that all humans have the right to the pursuit of happiness, government should not prevent two individuals from getting married. The author also examines other issues regarding gay marriage, such as child adoption, insurance benefits, gay divorces, inheritance rights, etc... The author also takes on arguments against gay marriage, and refutes them using historical and legal arguments. All in all, a good book to help understand the current, and growing issue of gay marriage.

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Evan Wolfson's book turned me into a believer. Even after seven years of sharing my life with the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, I still didn't think it mattered whether we were married or not. "Why Marriage Matters" changed that -- we had to fly to Canada to get married, but we did what we had to do, and now I've found that marriage has made every facet of our relationship stronger and better. Read this book and you'll begin to see that marriage does matter, and that, frankly, it is un-American to deny any segment of the population basic human rights and priveleges that the United States was created to protect for all its citizens.