Querying Edith Windsor, Querying Equality

9 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2013 Last revised: 26 Jun 2023

See all articles by Jeffrey A. Redding

Jeffrey A. Redding

University of Melbourne - Law School

Date Written: September 29, 2013

Abstract

In this short essay, I express skepticism about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in United States v. Windsor, and especially the vision of equality articulated by it. Kennedy's vision of equality is one endorsed by many mainstream American LGB organizations as well. Yet, as this article explores, queer theorists, activists, and citizens have many reasons to be concerned by this articulation of equality, as well as the plaintiffs who instigate its expression. In this essay, then, after first problematizing the conceptions of equality circulating in the Windsor litigation, I try to conjure a queer politics of marriage and, simultaneously, a queer Edith Windsor. The hope is that by imagining this kind of plaintiff, a more queer — and more human(e) — articulation of equality might emerge from American courts and their resolutions of various same-sex marriage controversies.

Keywords: equality, marriage, queer, Windsor

Suggested Citation

Redding, Jeffrey A., Querying Edith Windsor, Querying Equality (September 29, 2013). 59 Villanova Law Review (Tolle Lege) 9 (2013), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2333278

Jeffrey A. Redding (Contact Author)

University of Melbourne - Law School ( email )

University Square
185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Victoria, Victoria 3010
Australia

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