From This Day Forward: Commitment, Marriage, and Family in Lesbian and Gay Relationships

According to Stiers, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at West Virginia University, lesbians and gay men believe they should have the right to marry even if most are not sure they would do it themselves. Her report is based on firsthand interviews conducted in 1993 and 1994 with 90 residents of Massachusetts who self-identified as either lesbian, gay or bisexual. Although her sample seems too small and well-educated to use as a basis for broad assertions about lesbian and gay attitudes, Stiers found the results fascinating since, as recently as the 1970s, lesbians and gays ""decried the oppressive nature of marriage in general and advocated that it be abolished."" She also reports on how respondents defined love, commitment and family; their reasons for wanting to be married; and whether they supported such traditional elements of courtship and marriage as engagements, wedding showers and church weddings. She supplements her data and conclusions with a discussion of the series of legal cases in Hawaii in which same-sex couples sought the right to marry (which ultimatelu provoked the national debate that led to the 1996 congressional Defense of Marriage Act, barring federal recognition of same-sex marriages and signed by President Clinton. Stiers's sometimes stodgy academese makes it unlikely this adapted doctoral dissertation will realize her aim to reach a wide audience, though it makes a useful contribution to the field of lesbian and gay studies. (Mar.)