A Peace Proposal for the Same-Sex Marriage Wars: Restoring the Household to its Proper Place

Abstract

This article suggests that while both the gay marriage and covenant marriage movements have made positive attempts to try to respond to the difficulties facing American families, their focus on a "choice" model of family formation exacerbates, rather than alleviating, these problems. The thesis of the article is that American society would be better served by returning to the household as the key defining legal concept, and shows how plurality of family forms have flourished as households over the centuries.

Keywords: Family, gay marriage, covenant marriage, same-sex marriage, nuclear family

JEL Classification: J12