Gay Marriage (book)

Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America

Cover of the first edition
Author	Jonathan Rauch
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Same-sex marriage
Published	2004 (Times Books)
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	207
ISBN

Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America is a 2004 book about same-sex marriage by the journalist Jonathan Rauch. The book received both critical and supportive commentary.

Rauch argues that permitting same-sex marriages will strengthen marriage as an institution. He believes that same-sex marriage would strengthen marriage by making it more universal, broadening its influence, and thus signaling society's clear preference for marriage over cohabitation. Through reinforcing marriage's normative status, same-sex marriage might slow or help to reverse society's drift toward nonmarital cohabitation. Same-sex marriage would undercut the main rationale for alternatives to marriage such as civil unions and domestic partnerships, and strengthen marriage by making the institution more just and improving its public image.

Gay Marriage received a positive review in The Economist, describing it as a "cool, articulate, poignant plea in favour of gay marriage" and "a powerful book, clear, tolerant and persuasive, never ranting or self-pitying".

Gay Marriage was the focus of a cover story in Philadelphia Gay News, written by Robert DiGiacomo. E. J. Graff reviewed the book negatively in Out magazine, accusing Rauch of misleadingly citing her work, and criticizing his argument that same-sex marriage would "domesticate" gay men.

David Blankenhorn called Gay Marriage "the most precise and serious argument to date in favor of the proposition that marriage supporters should accept gay marriage." However, he rejected Rauch's case for same-sex marriage. Blankenhorn criticized Rauch for ignoring questions such as "what is marriage?" and "how did it come to exist?", neglecting the anthropological and historical record on marriage, and failing to address the connection between marriage and children. The journalist E. J. Dionne called Rauch's book "thoughtful", writing that it helped convince him to support same-sex marriage. Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, and the philosopher Robert P. George, writing in What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense (2012), argued that despite Rauch's desire to preserve traditional marital norms, same-sex marriage would undermine those norms.