The Other Same-Sex Marriage Debate

The high profile contemporary controversy about whether to allow same-sex couples to marry has obscured an earlier debate about same-sex marriage. This previous debate took place inside the LGBT movement, where equality advocates faced off about whether marriage equality ought, as a normative matter, to be pursued. With few exceptions, this internal critique of LGBT marriage has receded. In this article, Professor Schacter revisits the earlier debate, considers why pro-equality marriage skepticism faded, reflects on how the public debate about same-sex marriage today might have unfolded differently had the marriage skeptics within the LGBT community held more sway, and suggests ways in which the largely-forgotten internal debate has relevance in the contemporary context.