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One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

Online ISBN:
9780814744901
Print ISBN:
9780814737125
Publisher:
NYU Press
Book

One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

Published online:
24 March 2016
Published in print:
16 April 2012
Online ISBN:
9780814744901
Print ISBN:
9780814737125
Publisher:
NYU Press

Abstract

The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. While the efforts of lesbians and gay men to make marriage accessible to same-sex couples have seen increasing success, these initiatives have sparked a backlash as campaigns are waged to “protect” heterosexual marriage in America. Less in the public eye is government legislation that embraces the idea of marriage promotion as a necessary societal good. This book uncovers broad cultural anxieties that fuel on-the-ground practices to reinforce a boundary of heterosexual marriage, questioning why marriage has become an issue of pervasive national preoccupation and anxiety, and explores the impact of policies that seek to reinstitutionalize heterosexual marriage in American society. From marriage workshops for the general public to relationship classes for welfare recipients to marriage education in high school classrooms, the book documents in meticulous detail the inner workings of ideologies of gender and heterosexuality in the practice of marriage promotion to fortify a concept of “one marriage,” an Anglo-American ideal of Christian, heterosexual monogamy.

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