Severing the Link between Marriage and Children's Best Interests: A Canadian Case Study

Abstract

This article explores the attitudes of lesbian mothers towards same-sex marriage, focusing in particular on how they perceive the relationship between marriage and children's best interests. The article draws on 36 semi-structured interviews with lesbian mothers living in British Columbia and Alberta, comparing their views on marriage and children's best interests with those articulated by lesbian and gay litigants during the Canadian same-sex marriage campaign. In contrast to the emphasis on marriage and parenting in the marriage litigation, the author found that few of the mothers interviewed made any positive link between having married parents and children's best interests. Only a quarter of the couples had married or intended to marry. Law reform directed at same-sex families should therefore not presume that lesbians perceive there to be any positive relationship between marriage and children's best interests.

Keywords: Canada, Children, Same-Sex Marriage, Parents, Sex and Gender Issues