Introduction

Abstract

The GLF’s manifesto identified the family as the starting point for the oppression of gay people and rejects law reforms in favour of ‘a revolutionary change in our whole society’ (ibid.). There are clear feminist influences in the manifesto’s concern about patriarchy and its determination to challenge institutionalized sexism and build an alliance with the women’s liberation movement (p. 328). However, four decades later, gay liberation has become gay rights, same-sex marriage has become a litmus test of how gay-friendly society is, and feminism is too often separated from gay rights claims, especially in relation to marriage. In this book I examine the issue of same-sex marriage from a new perspective, which draws inspiration from these ‘old’ values of the GLF. Rather than ask whether same-sex couples should be granted access to marriage, I focus my analysis on the institution of marriage itself using second-wave (socialist) feminist and queer theoretical insights to critique the marriage model of relationship recognition. I highlight the various provisions through which same-sex relationships have been legally recognized across several jurisdictions and the ways in which the reliance on the marriage model limits the transformative and transgressive potentials of the law reforms. Instead, I demonstrate why a revolutionary approach is needed, one that rejects the marriage model and takes seriously the critiques of marriage from both feminism and queer theory.