Part of the Queer Ideas series, edited by Michael Bronski QUEER IDEAS--a new series of LGBT hardcovers that address important intellectual questions facing the movement. A persuasive argument for why married couples, gay or straight, should not receive special rights denied to other families The problem with American law, Nancy Polikoff asserts, is that marriage is the dividing line between those relationships that matter and those that don't. A woman married to a man for nine months is entitled to Social Security survivor's benefits when he dies; a woman living for nineteen years with a man or woman to whom she isn't married is left without government support. Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage grapples with a pressing topic--the fight for marriage equality--but significantly moves the discussion forward by focusing on the larger social and political issues of marriage and family law. Polikoff reframes the family-rights debate by arguing that marriage should not bestow special legal privileges upon couples because people, both heterosexual and LGBT, live in a variety of relationships--including unmarried couples, single-parent households, extended biological family units, and myriad other configurations. These relationships, like marriage, are about building and sustaining economic and emotional interdependence and nurturing the next generation. Polikoff shows how the law can value all families, and why it must. "A much-needed intervention in the contemporary debate about marriage and family. Polikoff's argument is provocative, illuminating, and original." --John D'Emilio, author of Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin Nancy D. Polikoff isprofessor of law at American University Washington College of Law. "Polikoff mobilizes an impressive array of legal history and contemporary court cases to show how marriage, whether same-sex or heterosexual, has ceased to be the only place where people incur long-term obligations. She argues vigorously that our society needs to find new ways of determining when legally-enforceable responsibilities and entitlements have accrued in interpersonal relationships." --Stephanie Coontz, author, Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage "This book really matters. It is brilliant and thoughtful, not simply about a set of laws, but as a manifesto to transform the way we understand, recognize and respect the reality of our diverse and complex family compositions. Polikoff grounds her arguments in the 35 year history of social change activism in this country to construct a passionate and nuanced argument for expanding our same sex marriage activism to include all of the ways people love, form families and build community." --Amber Hollibaugh, Senior Strategist, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and author of My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming her Way Home "Passionate but completely grounded in reality, Polikoff challenges LGBT rights advocates to see beyond gay equality arguments and question the fundamental fairness of limiting family recognition based on marriage, gay or straight. It is a powerful call for social justice." --Nan D. Hunter, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project and Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School "A provocative and perspicuous intervention in one of the most devilish recent debatesin U.S. law and politics...In a principled yet pragmatic analysis, Polikoff mounts a compelling case against the continued grip of 'conjugalism' on our family law and policy. Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage challenges us to imagine and build a political consensus that respects the realities of contemporary American kinship and family life, in all its complexity." --Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law, Columbia University