In the popular imagination, gay marriage is conceived as a battle between right-wing fundamentalists with biblical ideas about compatible genitalia and loving gays and lesbians who simply want an official stamp on their relationship. But the issue emerged out of a complicated nexus of political and social movements, including the response to the AIDS crisis; the LGBTQ community has a long and often contentious history when it comes to marriage. As Leigh Moscowitz argues in her new book, The Battle Over Marriage, media representations have generally erased those complexities, while shifting dramatically in their tone over time. Today, gay couples are the new normal, and gay marriage is increasingly accepted as the norm, both within and without the gay community.
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Moscowitz studies how activists sought to frame the issue in the media between 2003 and 2010, and what that says about the potential for—and drawbacks of—relying on the press to sustain a cause. She considers the many arguments made by supporters: that gays and lesbians are just like everyone else, that marriage is in effect a civilizing force, that all children need two married parents, and so on. As she shows in detail, the struggle to represent marriage between lesbians and gays was a struggle to maintain a narrative about normalcy and harmony.
Moscowitz is meticulous in describing her methodology: how she went about her interviews, what questions she asked, what sources she looked at. Ironically, this causes her to miss the forest for the trees—the problem being not that she spoke only to promarriage activists, but that she takes their claims at face value.
By Leigh Moscowitz (University of Illinois Press)
