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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2004)
7 amount of time on each chapter, making them succinct and clear. I suppose the best part about this book is that it finally pro vides some real historical details in place of the rhetoric and polemics that we most com monly hear when anything to do with mar riage comes up. This book does a wonderful job of supplying some much-needed histori cal grounding of the queer position in this debate and in American society in general. —Graham Turner he has focused his keen intellect on the subject. Now, Wolfson has done all of us a great service by writing Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People’s Right to Marry. The book addresses the concerns of everyday Americans as they struggle with the issue of marriage equality. He touches on all aspects—from the religious response to the historical argument, from racial equality to what the opponents of marriage equality don’t want you to know—in an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow way. In fact, the book Sam e-Sex M arraige becomes downright compul Pro and Con sive as Wolfson draws the reader into the compelling Edited hy Andrew Sullivan; S a m k - S k x M a k k ia o k : stories of real people whose Vintage, 1997; $14 softcover lives are affected by society’s “I want to let him know that injustice. he doesn’t have to choose Never didactic or preachy, between himself and his family Wolfson explains carefully anymore. 1 want him to know and respectfully exactly why that his love has dignity, that he marriage matters to the mil does indeed have a future— lions of us who can’t have < it. And he does it in the Only marriage will do that. Only * _ »:■ A K K A » K k marriage can bring him home.” way that we could (if only This is one of the closing we were so articulate). In ANUKKW SULLIVAN lines to a piece written hy prolif fact, the next time you’re discussing marriage equality ic conservative gay essayist and with family or friends and you find you don’t commentator Andrew Sullivan and included have the words, give them Why Marriage in this reader he complied about same-sex marriage. His statement is in reference to Matters instead. — Floyd Sklaver all the assumedly tortured, self-hating, depressed and lonely gay hoys (note that he uses only the masculine pronoun) who cannot seem to reconcile C ivil W ars: A Battle their gay love with their fo r Gay M arriage family’s bigotry. As Sulli van so adroitly points by David Moats; Harcourt, 2004; out, the only way to add $25 hardcover real worth and love to a person’s life is to get David Moats is the editorial married. page editor of The Rutbnd (Vt.) This simple and reduc Herald and a Pulitzer Prize winner tionist understanding of for his editorials in support of civil contemporary issues is a unions. Although not gay, he Sullivan trademark, and wrote Civil Wars because of his unfortunately for anyone interest in the debate and the buying his hook, the political machinations that result other essays suffer from ed in his home state’s ground breaking civil unions. the same error. He has managed to take almost every single article Civil Wars describes the history of the included and cut it down to about four pages case that led to the legislation—that is, each. What little substantial writing left is three couples being brave enough to bring hardly worth the reader’s time. suit; a favorable ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court that punted the problem The essays are (on the whole) completely back to the Legislature and demanded it uninteresting and provide next to no insight. But if you are looking for a perfect remedy “the exclusion of same-sex couples from the secular benefits and protections mirror of the current mainstream "debate” surrounding same-sex marriage—and hy that offered married couples”; and the storm of I mean shallow and wholly unoriginal— politics on both sides as Gov. Howard Dean worked to craft a solution. Sullivan’s reader is definitely the way to go. Moats also discusses the major events of —G T gay history in the late 20th century—the Stonewall riots, the murder of Harvey Milk, the AIDS epidemic, the fight for gays in the W hy M arriage military, the lawsuit M atters: Am erica, brought in Hawaii, the Matthew Shepard mur Equality and Gay der—and says in the pro P eople’s Right to logue that the Vermont M arry story ranks “with Birming ham and Selma as land hy Evan Wolfson; Simon & marks of our growth Schuster, 2004; $22 hardcover toward a more complete democracy." Evan Wolfson has been Extremely well-written, Civil Wars is required read called the Martin Luther King Jr. of the gay rights movement. ing for anyone with an Since 1983, when he wrote his interest in our history or Harvard Law School thesis on politics. the subject of marriage equality, — FS j n 280-8080 Çifts for Romance in an TCegant Sei It’s a you parade. D. Fulps/George Kettner Herzog-Meier 503-644-912 1 *can @ hercogmeier.com Drivers wanted M AURORA CHORUS PRESENTS DECEMBER 19,2004 CLLWCL CDWJKff L d h tt 4 PM AND 7 PM SPECIAL GUESTS, sto rytellers 's * * X Journey home to the heart of the holiday season with Aurora Chorus. A n n e R u t h er fo r d & T o b in G o lih a r As You A re P roductions With rhythms that flow from CABELL HALL on the Broadway to India and back CAMPUS OF CATLIN GABEL SCHOOL again, plus two world premieres 8825 SW B arnes R oad , P ortland , OR by conductor Joan Szymko, this season's Aurora Concert will surely X be a memorable one. 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