Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America

457 Pages·2017·26.67 MB·English

by  Nathaniel Frank

Awakening


n a t h a n i e l f r a n k
Awa k e n ing
  
How Gays and Lesbians Brought
Marriage Equality
to Amer i ca
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Mass a chus etts • London, England
2017
Copyright © 2017 by Nathaniel Frank
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Frank, Nathaniel, author.
Title: Awakening : how gays and lesbians brought marriage
equality to Amer i ca / Nathaniel Frank.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016041974 | ISBN 9780674737228 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Same- sex marriage— United States— History. |
Gay culture— United States— History. | Gays— Legal status, laws, etc.—
United States— History. | Gay liberation movement— United States— History. |
Gay rights— United States— History.
Classification: LCC HQ1034.U5 F73 2017 | DDC 306.76/6— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov/2016041974
In memory of Frank Kameny, 1925–2011

For Dominick,
my husband

It’s just pos si ble that a small and despised sexual minority
w ill change Amer ic a forever.
— Andrew Kopkind, The Nation, 1993

Contents
List of Abbreviations xi
Prologue 1
1 “Homosexual Marriage?” 11
the stirrings of a new idea
2 “What Was Impor tant Was That We Were a House hold” 37
gay marriages and the domestic partnership
alternative
3 “We Are Criminals in the Eyes of the Law” 59
sodomy, aids, and new alliances
4 “A Tectonic Shift” 77
earthquake in hawaii
5 “The Very Foundations of Our Society Are in Danger” 102
the defense of marriage
6 “ Here Come the Brides” 126
laying the cornerstone in mas sa chu setts
7 “Power to the People” 150
rogue weddings and ballot initiatives
8 “A Po liti cal Awakening” 173
california’s proposition 8 changes the game
9 “Brick by Brick” 193
pro gress in the states
10 “ Make More Snowflakes and There Will Be
an Avalanche” 217
battles over strategy come to a head
11 “Without Any Rational Justification” 233
proposition 8 on trial
ix