Same-sex marriage is now legal in over 20 countries and its legalization is under discussion in several more. The first legalization was voted by the Netherlands in December 2000, and effective from April 1 the following year. The timing of that legalization symbolically associates the entry of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer/questioning (LGBTIQ) populations into mainstream norms of “family” and “citizenship” in liberal capitalist democracies with the world’s entry into the third millennium.
Notwithstanding their commonalities as Western or Western-aligned liberal democracies, the countries where lesbians and gay men can now legally tie the marriage knot also present considerable variety, both culturally and politically. They include recent or longstanding democracies, republics and parliamentary monarchies, unitary and federal states, and reflect different positions with respect to religion and the cultural foundations of the nation. Countries opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage, including those having taken measures in recent years to legally reinforce the heterosexual character of marriage , present a similar diversity . In countries where same-sex marriage has been legal for some time, the level and type of integration into wider politics, society, culture, and economy may also vary substantially. This diversity , in a globalized context where the idea of same-sex marriage has become integral to claims for LGBTIQ equality, citizenship, and indeed human rights, gives rise to the following questions: Which factors contribute to the institutionalization of same-sex marriage or, in those countries where institutionalization remains out of reach, how are legal institutions being used to reinforce the heterosexual character of marriage ?
These questions lie at the core of this book. While much of the existing scholarship focuses on how and by whom claims for the recognition of same-sex couples are brought forward, occasionally including how they are articulated within parliamentary politics (Dorf and Tarrow 2014; Tremblay et al. 2011), this book asks questions such as: What do these claims and campaigns do to institutions? How are they embedded into institutionalized conceptions of justice and equality? Through which discursive frames —in the sense developed, for instance, by Mieke Verloo (2007) or Carol Bacchi (1999)—are these claims incorporated into party and policy discourses ? What roles are played by policy transfers from one country to another, such as those highlighted by David Dolowitz and David Marsh (1996)? This book also pays attention to the domestic impact of broader supranational or international norms on the articulation of claims in favor of, or in opposition to, same-sex marriage. Through their exploration of these questions, the contributors to this book shed a different light on the institutionalization of same-sex marriage , understood as the set of political, policy, and legal processes by which the institution of marriage is being opened, or closed, to same-sex couples. Simultaneously, they broaden the scope of the analysis to a greater number of intervening variables, thus better accounting for both successful attempts and backlashes.
Scholarship on Same-Sex Marriage
The wave of legalizations , and campaigns for legalization , of same-sex marriage has been accompanied by development of a considerable and growing body of scholarship, including within the context of a globalized articulation of LGBTIQ (human) rights , notably through UN fora (Yogyakarta Principles 2006; Joint Statement before the UN General Assembly 2008; UN Human Rights Council Resolutions 2011, 2014; see also O’Flaherty and Fisher 2008; Lennox and Waites 2013; Baisley 2016; Hellum 2016). This literature discusses historical pathways toward the full enfranchisement of gay and lesbians , notably in the areas of civil and family rights (e.g. Pierceson 2014; Faderman 2016) and the broader issue of sexual citizenship (e.g. Ayoub 2016). More frequently, it addresses the mobilizations and resistances that these claims have triggered, and state responses (Offord 2003; Tremblay et al. 2011; Weiss and Bosia 2013; Dorf and Tarrow 2014). Recently, this focus on the politics of LGBTIQ rights , including the recognition of same-sex couples, has expanded to the impact of policy transfers such as those entailed by the enlargement of the European Union (EU) (Slootmaeckers et al. 2016). However, approaches that primarily address the role of social, political, and legal institutions have remained scarce, and with some exceptions (e.g. Rydstrom 2011), largely focused on the Americas (e.g. Mezey 2007, 2009; Smith 2008; Díez 2016; Mello 2016).
Where the focus is exclusively on the state and same-sex marriage, it is often in relationship to social movement lobbying , with the author or authors sometimes taking a specific advocacy standpoint. Other works, on the contrary, canvass debates on same-sex marriage, demonstrating that notwith...