Valuing All Families: An Introduction to the 2008 Santa Clara Law Review Symposium

The family has changed over time, as has the law concerning families and relationships. Thank goodness. Until recent decades, the law punished nonmarital sex, delineated separate spheres for men and women, and restricted the grounds for ending marriage. The sexual revolution, feminism, and the demand for divorce were the social phenomena that facilitated these changes. Today we take for granted that marriage is not the right dividing line for the rights and obligations of parents. We now must revise our laws to protect the economic security and emotional peace of mind of the full variety of today\u27s families and relationships

Equality and Justice for Lesbian and Gay Families and Relationships

In 1989, Tom Stoddard and Paula Ettelbrick, attorneys with the gay rights group Lambda Legal, published side-by-side opposing essays about whether marriage for same-sex couples should be a movement priority. Rutgers Law Review is publishing a 2009 symposium commemorating the 20th anniversary of these now-iconic essays. This article is part of that symposium. It places the Ettelbrick essay, and the groundbreaking case of Braschi v. Stahl Associates decided the same year, in the context of the gay rights movement\u27s strong support of family diversity. It then critiques the contemporary right-wing marriage movement for blaming all social problems on family diversity/aka the decline of life-long heterosexual marriage. The gay rights marriage equality movement has fallen short as well for its acceptance of the primacy of marriage and its concomitant retreat from justice for diverse families and relationships. The article offers an alternative vision in which the law does not privilege marriage

Testimony before the D.C. Council on Marriage Equality & Domestic Partnerships

An expert on family law issues affecting gay and lesbian couples, parents and their children, the author provides testimony in support of deleting a provision from pending legislation that would eliminate the legal status of domestic partnerships in Washington, DC. Legal status of domestic partnerships recognizes committed familial relationships other than marriage and is important to family stability and to allocate rights and responsibilities of gay and lesbian couples