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Wedlocked: The
Perils of Marriage Equality
by Katherine Franke
c.2015, New York University Press
$26.00 / higher in Canada
275 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
You’re not in any hurry.
The ring’s on your finger, the engagement was just
announced, and you both feel like you’ve got plenty of time.
Now’s your chance to enjoy the process of getting married.
Here’s your opportunity to plan the future. But
Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality by Katherine
Franke asks the question: why marry at all?
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When President George Washington died, his will stipulated
that his slaves be given their freedom when his wife,
Martha, who inherited them, would die.
This, says Katherine Franke, accidentally “put a price on”
Martha’s head but moreover, it was an acknowledgment on
Washington’s part that shows one complexity of slavery:
marriage between the Washington slaves meant that freeing
his without freeing hers could break up families.
This issue, and others before and after the Civil War,
illustrates how “many of the experiences of African
Americans held out a message to the same-sex marriage
movement today.”
Throughout American history, Franke says, the “rules” of
marriage for non-white or gay individuals hid a double-edged
sword of enhanced rights and enforced matrimonial laws
complicated by pre-Emancipation fluidity of relationships
and looser definitions of “marriage” within African-American
communities then; and by somewhat of a lack of awareness in
the LGBT community, complicated by different state laws now.
The bottom line that’s often not emphasized: when a couple
marries, the state suddenly “acquires a legal interest in
your relationship.” Now, as then, marriage may also be
legally “forced” on a couple: in the case of former slaves,
to gain benefits in wartime; for LGBT couples, in the
continuation of health benefits. Even after all that,
marriage, as Franke reminds readers, has never offered a
guarantee from discrimination.
Is it possible, Franke asks, that “the inability to marry
creates a kind of freedom from the ‘bonds’ of marriage?” At
a time when the rates of marriage in the Black community are
low and LGBT parents are demanding new legal definitions of
“family,” will marriage become antiquated? Or is the
“freedom” to marry just another way for society to meddle in
the lives of marginalized individuals?
Surely, few readers would consider Wedlocked a fun
weekend read. It’s not exactly what you’d take to the beach
with you. Fun, no. Interesting, absolutely.
It’s also quite thought-provoking. Author Katherine Franke
is, in part, Director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality
Law at Columbia University, and in this book, she asks hard
questions between jaw-dropping history lessons and proof
that marriage is both burden and boon to anyone who’s not
white and straight. That’s not to say that the institution
is dead; instead, Franke wonders if, of all rights denied
former slaves and gay individuals, marriage may’ve been the
oddest choice for legal battles.
But which other right would’ve been better? The answer to
that seems to be left open for discussion; indeed, readers
are given much to ponder from this heavy-duty,
scholarly book. Just beware that time is the key to
opening Wedlocked, now in paperback. Enjoy and
contemplate, but don’t be in any hurry. |
