The Same Sex Marriage Movement: Culture Shifting Through Discourses of Equal Rights and Family Values

Gay activists, by pursuing same sex marriage, have chosen a slyly radical struggle. It is to recognize in a public way that despite the fact that the confluence of public discourses on homosexuality has reached no agreement on whether gays should be equal citizens to heterosexuals, gays and lesbians are already living their lives in partnerships and families in such a way that they can begin to speak for recognition not only of themselves as individual citizens, but as family and partner units, without apologizing for who they are. This thesis focuses on the themes of equal rights, family values, and the intra-community debates over same sex marriage, while drawing from gay and lesbian narratives. The author seeks to reveal how gay and lesbian couples perceive their own needs and exclusions from societal recognitions and sometimes face that exclusion with difficulty. How does same sex marriage both speak to these needs and become a movement that attempt to articulate those needs