Tuesday, July 22, 2008

WHY ONE STRAIGHT FEMINIST IS NOT RUSHING TO GET MARRIED

The feminist critique of marriage is not dead, though it often appears under wraps these days. That makes me especially grateful to Courtney Martin for her piece on the American Prospect website yesterday.

Courtney may someday run up against a wall. Maybe she or her partner will be unemployed, or have a job with no health insurance, and the employed one of them may only be able to cover a spouse on his or her policy. I could face this myself if the District of Columbia ever allows same-sex marriages. My university grants domestic partner health insurance only to same-sex couples; it expects different-sex couples to marry. So it's reasonable to think if we could marry, American University would expect us to do it. Although I am a prominent critic of marriage, I couldn't let my partner, with her history of medical issues, go uninsured. I hope it doesn't happy to Courtney, that she keeps spreading her skepticism, and that she joins the effort to unhook marriage from a unique set of legal consequences.

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