Queer Normal: Interpreting Lesbian Marriages of the 1950s, 60s and 70s
Abstract
Lesbians have organized and participated in same-sex wedding ceremonies since the 1950s, but never without controversy, and the controversies have been as much among lesbians and gays themselves as between those opposed to homosexuality and those in favor of sexual rights. This article examines lesbian weddings in the United States and Canada in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s to consider the meaning of such ceremonies in the social, political, and temporal context in which they occurred. Building on Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis’ argument that butch and femme culture in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s was feminism in its pre-political stage, I argue that women of color and white women who in the 1970s campaigned for state recognition of their marriages represent one aspect of butch and femme culture in its political stage. Because these political demands stood in opposition to white feminists’ argument that marriage was an oppressive institution that should be abolished, this article invites us to question assumptions embedded in the analytical tools used by queer theorists and historians of sexuality, namely the emphasis on resistance against normativity as indicative of progressive politics.References
Primary Sources
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“Bars that Were,” MCFilm.co
http://www.mcfilm.co/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/13-jimmy.jpg
Bobbi, personal correspondence, 12 July 201.
Bozarth, Rene, and Alfred A. Gross, “Homosexuality: Sickness or Sin? A Dialogue,” Pastoral Psychology 13: 9 (December 1962): 35–42.
Cantor, Donald J. “Deviation and the Criminal Law,” Journal of Criminal Law,
Criminology, and Police Science, 55:4 (Dec 1964): 441–53.
Combahee River Collective, The. The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing in the Seventies and Eighties (Albany, New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1986).
David Susskind Show, 1973 Feb. 11. Miscellaneous Sound Recordings 0274, Rudy Grillo sound recordings 1970–1989, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.
Egenhoff, Cjörli L. “Observations of a Sub-Cultural Wedding,” typescript, 1969 (Kinsey Institute Archives, Bloomington, Indiana).
Goodman, Bernice. The Lesbian Mother (New York: Institute for Human Identity, 1973).
Dana Harper, “The Truth About Homosexual Women,” Part III Sexology 15:3 (October 1948), 181-2.
Heron, Alastair, and Friends Home Service Committee. Towards a Quaker View of Sex. London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1963.
Hunter, Eleanor. “Double Indemnity: The Negro Lesbian in the ‘Straight’ White World,” Dec 9, 1969, unpublished paper, “Black Lesbians” folder, Nan Boyd Papers, GLBT Historical Society.
“In Memoriam.” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 17:1 (2004): xix–xxii.
Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman Rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1983), 94.
“Mock wedding at Jimmie White's Tavern,” Rex Maniscalco Collection of Bobby Smith Photographs [LGBT], University of South Florida Libraries Digital Collections, http://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0005238
Perry, Troy and Charles Lucas, The Lord is My Shepherd and He knows I'm Gay: The Autobiography of the Rev. Troy D. Perry, as told to Charles L. Lucas (Los Angeles: Nash Pub., 1972).
Grieg, Michael. “The Boom in Gay Marriages” San Francisco Chronicle (14–15 July 1970): 1, 16.
Prosin, Sue. “The Lesbian: A Study in Self-Image and Role Playing Patterns,” Sue Prosin Papers (Collection 2225). University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Sawyer, Ethel. “A Study of a Public Lesbian Community,” (research paper, Washington University, 1965), 24.‘Relationships – Marriage 12010,” LHA.
Thielicke, Helmut. The Ethics of Sex. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
“Should Marriage Between Homosexuals Be Permitted?,” 5/2/1974, WGBH Media Library & Archives, accessed September 3, 2015, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/f4ae6e-should-marriage-between-homosexuals-be-permitted.
United States. Dept. of Labor. The Negro Family: The Case of National Action. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1965.
Wood, Robert Watson. Christ and the Homosexual: Some Observations. Vantage Press, 1960.
Newspapers and Magazines
The Body Politic
Waite, Brian. “Oppression Begins at Home,” No. 5 (July/August 1972): 19.
The Capital
“License change denied in same-sex marriage,” The Capital, 10 July 1975, 3, Newspapers.com.
Chatelaine
Renate Wilson, “What Turns Women to Lesbianism? (October 1966): 131.
Dayton Daily News
Huffman, Dale. “Two Women Fighting to Wed Each Other,” Dayton Daily News, 11 April 1974. ‘Relationships – Marriage 12010,” LHA.
Elliott, Ace. “Female Couple Evicted,” Dayton Daily News, 11 December 1974.
Echo of Sappho
Lesbian Herstory Archives, Relationships–Marriage 12000, Echo of Sappho, n.d. [1972?], 10.
Jet
“ ‘Wedding’ of Two Women Interrupted by Police,” 16 April 1953, 16.
“Law Bans Wedding of Ohio Lesbians,” 20 Feb 1975, p. 22.
Justice Weekly
“Lesbians Not Flamboyant Persecuted By Those Who Are, Says ‘One’ Writer,” 3 April 1954.
off our backs
Diana Onley-Campbell, “Stronger Links,” 9:7 (July 1979): 18.
Diana Onley-Campbell, “Black Lesbian Workshop,” 9:7 (July 1979): 18.
doc, “1st national third world lesbian & gay conference,” (Nov 1979), 14.
HUSH Free Press
“Freak Wedding: Bridegroom is a Girl!” 23 February 1957, 1, 4–5.
“She-Male Queer Colony Celebrate ‘Do-It-Yourself’ Marriage,” 17 August 1957, 8.
The Ladder
Shelley, Martha. “On Marriage,” 13: 1-2 (October-November 1968): 46–47.
Shotwell, Jodi. “Gay Wedding,” February 1963, 7 (5): 4–5.
Mother
“Marriage fight due,” 1:7 (December 1971): 1.
New York Post
“2 Women are Joined in ‘Holy Union’ at Church,” April 19, 1971, 6.
Signs
Deborah H. King, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” 14:1 (Autumn 1988): 42-72.
Time
“Homosexuality: Gays on the March,” September 8. 1975.
Toronto SUN
“ ‘I now pronounce you…er,’” Toronto SUN, 6 April 1975, 4.
San Francisco Chronicle
Michael Grieg, “The Boom in Gay Marriages” (14-15 July 1970): 1, 16.
Interviews
Barber, Ivy. interview by [author name removed], 1993.
Burkett, Donna. interview by [author name removed], January 31, 2014.
Clement, Father Robert. Interview by [author name removed], July, 2011.
Crush, Lynn. Interview by [author], 1993.
de Jesus, Dais.y Interview by [author name removed], June 20, 2012.
Rentos, Aida. Interview by [author name removed], 11 April 2011.
Turner, E.T. Interview by [author name removed], August 2013.
Cathy Jones, (Kentucky) interview.
Perry, Troy. Interview by [author name removed], July 2011.
Secondary Sources
Alwood, Edward. “A Gift of Gab: How Independent Broadcasters Gave Gay Rights Pioneers a Chance to be Heard,” in Media Q: Media/queered: Visibility and its Discontents, ed. Kevin G Barnhurst (New York: Peter Lang, 2004), pp. 27-44.
“Archive looking for Philly Gay Couple from 1950s Ceremony,” Philadelphia Gay News, February 21, 2013,
http://www.epgn.com/news/local/5626-21778098-archive-looking-for-philly-gay-couple-from-1950s-ceremony.
Boyd, Nan Alamilla. Wide-open town: A history of queer san francisco to 1965. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Boucai, Michael. “Glorious Precedents: When Gay Marriage Was Radical,” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, 27 (1): 1-82.
Boykin, “Where Rhetoric Meets Reality: The Role of Black Lesbians and Gays in ‘Queer’ Politics,” in C. Rimmerman, Wald, D., and Wilcox, C. (eds). The Politics of Gay Rights. Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press, 2000: pp. 79-96.
Canaday, Margot. The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Carby, Hazel V. “White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood,” in Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader eds. Houston A. Baker, Manthia Diawara, Ruth H. Lindeborg (Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press, 1996), 63–64.
Cartier, Marie. Baby, You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall. Durham, UK: Acumen, 2013.
Case, Sue-Ellen. “Towards a Butch-Fem Fem Aesthetic,” Discourse 11:1 (Fall–Winter 1988–89), pp. 55–73.
Chenier, Elise. “Rethinking Class in Lesbian Bar Culture: Living ‘The Gay Life’ in Toronto, 1955–1965,” Left History 9 (2) (Spring/Summer 2004): 85-118.
Cott, Nancy F. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2000.
Coulmont, B. “Églises chrétiennes et homosexualités aux États-Unis, éléments de compréhension,” Revue française d’études américaines 93 (2003): 73–86.
D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983).
Duggan, Lisa. The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2003.
Dunak, Karen M., As Long As We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America. New York: New York University Press, 2013.
Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Fosl, Catherine. “ ‘It Could Be Dangerous!’: Gay Liberation and Gay Marriage in Louisville, Kentucky, 1970,” Ohio Valley History 12, 1 (2012) pp. 45–64.
Gallo, Marcia M. Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement (New York: Carrroll & Graff, 2006).
Gilmartin, Katie. “ ‘We weren’t bar people’: Middle-Class Lesbian Identities and Cultural Spaces,” GLQ 3:1 (1996): 1-51.
Hollibaugh, Amber and Cherrie Moraga, ‘What We’re Rollin’ Around in Bed With: Sexual Silences in Feminism,” Heresies 12 (1981), 58–62.
Hom, Alice Y., “Unifying Differences: Lesbian of Color Community Building In Los Angeles and New York, 1970s–1980s,” (PhD diss., Claremont Graduate University, 2011).
Hunter, Nan D. “Marriage, Law and Gender: A Feminist Inquiry,” in Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture, eds. Lisa Duggan and Nan D. Hunter (New York: Routledge, 1995).
Jeffreys, Sheila. “Butch and Femme: Now and Then” Gossip 5 (1987): 65–95.
Jordan, Mark. Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusion of Christian Marriage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Klarman, Michael. From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Lewin, Ellen. Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Trumansburg, New York: Crossing Press, 1984), 110–13.
Martin, Biddy. Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being Lesbian. New York: Routledge Press, 1996.
Mumford, Kevin J. “The Trouble with Gay Rights: Race and the Politics of Sexual Orientation in Philadelphia, 1969-1982,” Journal of American History 98:1 (June 2011): 62.
-----. “Untangling Pathology: The Moynihan Report and Homosexual Damage, 1965-1975,” Journal of Policy History 24:1 (2012): 53-73.
Nestle, Joan. “Butch-femme relationships: sexual courage in the 1950s,” in A Restricted Country, Ithaca: Firebrand, 1987, pp. 100–9.
Pierceson, Jason. Same-sex Marriage in the United States: The Road to the Supreme Court. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013.
Ramírez, Horacio N. Roque. “‘That's My Place!’: Negotiating Racial, Sexual, and Gender Politics in San Francisco's Gay Latino Alliance, 1975-1983,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 12.2 (2003).
Rubin, Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, ed. Carole S. Vance (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), pp. 267–329.
Stein, Marc. City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945–1972. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Stiers, Gretchen A. From This Day Forward: Commitment, Marriage and Family in Lesbian and Gay Relationships. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Thorpe, Roey. “The Changing Face of Lesbian Bars in Detroit, 1938–1965,” in Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories, ed. Brett Beemyn. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Valverde, Mariana. “A New Entity in the History of Sexuality: The Respectable Same-Sex Couple,” Feminist Studies 32, no. 1 (Spring 2006).
Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics and the Ethics of Queer Life. Durham, North Carolina: Harvard University Press, 2000.
----- Case, decimal 220.8, box 3778, Classified decimal file 1950-1951, Records of the Adjutant General, RG 407.
“Bars that Were,” MCFilm.co
http://www.mcfilm.co/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/13-jimmy.jpg
Bobbi, personal correspondence, 12 July 201.
Bozarth, Rene, and Alfred A. Gross, “Homosexuality: Sickness or Sin? A Dialogue,” Pastoral Psychology 13: 9 (December 1962): 35–42.
Cantor, Donald J. “Deviation and the Criminal Law,” Journal of Criminal Law,
Criminology, and Police Science, 55:4 (Dec 1964): 441–53.
Combahee River Collective, The. The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing in the Seventies and Eighties (Albany, New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1986).
David Susskind Show, 1973 Feb. 11. Miscellaneous Sound Recordings 0274, Rudy Grillo sound recordings 1970–1989, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.
Egenhoff, Cjörli L. “Observations of a Sub-Cultural Wedding,” typescript, 1969 (Kinsey Institute Archives, Bloomington, Indiana).
Goodman, Bernice. The Lesbian Mother (New York: Institute for Human Identity, 1973).
Dana Harper, “The Truth About Homosexual Women,” Part III Sexology 15:3 (October 1948), 181-2.
Heron, Alastair, and Friends Home Service Committee. Towards a Quaker View of Sex. London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1963.
Hunter, Eleanor. “Double Indemnity: The Negro Lesbian in the ‘Straight’ White World,” Dec 9, 1969, unpublished paper, “Black Lesbians” folder, Nan Boyd Papers, GLBT Historical Society.
“In Memoriam.” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 17:1 (2004): xix–xxii.
Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman Rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1983), 94.
“Mock wedding at Jimmie White's Tavern,” Rex Maniscalco Collection of Bobby Smith Photographs [LGBT], University of South Florida Libraries Digital Collections, http://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0005238
Perry, Troy and Charles Lucas, The Lord is My Shepherd and He knows I'm Gay: The Autobiography of the Rev. Troy D. Perry, as told to Charles L. Lucas (Los Angeles: Nash Pub., 1972).
Grieg, Michael. “The Boom in Gay Marriages” San Francisco Chronicle (14–15 July 1970): 1, 16.
Prosin, Sue. “The Lesbian: A Study in Self-Image and Role Playing Patterns,” Sue Prosin Papers (Collection 2225). University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Sawyer, Ethel. “A Study of a Public Lesbian Community,” (research paper, Washington University, 1965), 24.‘Relationships – Marriage 12010,” LHA.
Thielicke, Helmut. The Ethics of Sex. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
“Should Marriage Between Homosexuals Be Permitted?,” 5/2/1974, WGBH Media Library & Archives, accessed September 3, 2015, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/f4ae6e-should-marriage-between-homosexuals-be-permitted.
United States. Dept. of Labor. The Negro Family: The Case of National Action. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1965.
Wood, Robert Watson. Christ and the Homosexual: Some Observations. Vantage Press, 1960.
Newspapers and Magazines
The Body Politic
Waite, Brian. “Oppression Begins at Home,” No. 5 (July/August 1972): 19.
The Capital
“License change denied in same-sex marriage,” The Capital, 10 July 1975, 3, Newspapers.com.
Chatelaine
Renate Wilson, “What Turns Women to Lesbianism? (October 1966): 131.
Dayton Daily News
Huffman, Dale. “Two Women Fighting to Wed Each Other,” Dayton Daily News, 11 April 1974. ‘Relationships – Marriage 12010,” LHA.
Elliott, Ace. “Female Couple Evicted,” Dayton Daily News, 11 December 1974.
Echo of Sappho
Lesbian Herstory Archives, Relationships–Marriage 12000, Echo of Sappho, n.d. [1972?], 10.
Jet
“ ‘Wedding’ of Two Women Interrupted by Police,” 16 April 1953, 16.
“Law Bans Wedding of Ohio Lesbians,” 20 Feb 1975, p. 22.
Justice Weekly
“Lesbians Not Flamboyant Persecuted By Those Who Are, Says ‘One’ Writer,” 3 April 1954.
off our backs
Diana Onley-Campbell, “Stronger Links,” 9:7 (July 1979): 18.
Diana Onley-Campbell, “Black Lesbian Workshop,” 9:7 (July 1979): 18.
doc, “1st national third world lesbian & gay conference,” (Nov 1979), 14.
HUSH Free Press
“Freak Wedding: Bridegroom is a Girl!” 23 February 1957, 1, 4–5.
“She-Male Queer Colony Celebrate ‘Do-It-Yourself’ Marriage,” 17 August 1957, 8.
The Ladder
Shelley, Martha. “On Marriage,” 13: 1-2 (October-November 1968): 46–47.
Shotwell, Jodi. “Gay Wedding,” February 1963, 7 (5): 4–5.
Mother
“Marriage fight due,” 1:7 (December 1971): 1.
New York Post
“2 Women are Joined in ‘Holy Union’ at Church,” April 19, 1971, 6.
Signs
Deborah H. King, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” 14:1 (Autumn 1988): 42-72.
Time
“Homosexuality: Gays on the March,” September 8. 1975.
Toronto SUN
“ ‘I now pronounce you…er,’” Toronto SUN, 6 April 1975, 4.
San Francisco Chronicle
Michael Grieg, “The Boom in Gay Marriages” (14-15 July 1970): 1, 16.
Interviews
Barber, Ivy. interview by [author name removed], 1993.
Burkett, Donna. interview by [author name removed], January 31, 2014.
Clement, Father Robert. Interview by [author name removed], July, 2011.
Crush, Lynn. Interview by [author], 1993.
de Jesus, Dais.y Interview by [author name removed], June 20, 2012.
Rentos, Aida. Interview by [author name removed], 11 April 2011.
Turner, E.T. Interview by [author name removed], August 2013.
Cathy Jones, (Kentucky) interview.
Perry, Troy. Interview by [author name removed], July 2011.
Secondary Sources
Alwood, Edward. “A Gift of Gab: How Independent Broadcasters Gave Gay Rights Pioneers a Chance to be Heard,” in Media Q: Media/queered: Visibility and its Discontents, ed. Kevin G Barnhurst (New York: Peter Lang, 2004), pp. 27-44.
“Archive looking for Philly Gay Couple from 1950s Ceremony,” Philadelphia Gay News, February 21, 2013,
http://www.epgn.com/news/local/5626-21778098-archive-looking-for-philly-gay-couple-from-1950s-ceremony.
Boyd, Nan Alamilla. Wide-open town: A history of queer san francisco to 1965. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Boucai, Michael. “Glorious Precedents: When Gay Marriage Was Radical,” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, 27 (1): 1-82.
Boykin, “Where Rhetoric Meets Reality: The Role of Black Lesbians and Gays in ‘Queer’ Politics,” in C. Rimmerman, Wald, D., and Wilcox, C. (eds). The Politics of Gay Rights. Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press, 2000: pp. 79-96.
Canaday, Margot. The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Carby, Hazel V. “White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood,” in Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader eds. Houston A. Baker, Manthia Diawara, Ruth H. Lindeborg (Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press, 1996), 63–64.
Cartier, Marie. Baby, You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall. Durham, UK: Acumen, 2013.
Case, Sue-Ellen. “Towards a Butch-Fem Fem Aesthetic,” Discourse 11:1 (Fall–Winter 1988–89), pp. 55–73.
Chenier, Elise. “Rethinking Class in Lesbian Bar Culture: Living ‘The Gay Life’ in Toronto, 1955–1965,” Left History 9 (2) (Spring/Summer 2004): 85-118.
Cott, Nancy F. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2000.
Coulmont, B. “Églises chrétiennes et homosexualités aux États-Unis, éléments de compréhension,” Revue française d’études américaines 93 (2003): 73–86.
D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983).
Duggan, Lisa. The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2003.
Dunak, Karen M., As Long As We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America. New York: New York University Press, 2013.
Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Fosl, Catherine. “ ‘It Could Be Dangerous!’: Gay Liberation and Gay Marriage in Louisville, Kentucky, 1970,” Ohio Valley History 12, 1 (2012) pp. 45–64.
Gallo, Marcia M. Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement (New York: Carrroll & Graff, 2006).
Gilmartin, Katie. “ ‘We weren’t bar people’: Middle-Class Lesbian Identities and Cultural Spaces,” GLQ 3:1 (1996): 1-51.
Hollibaugh, Amber and Cherrie Moraga, ‘What We’re Rollin’ Around in Bed With: Sexual Silences in Feminism,” Heresies 12 (1981), 58–62.
Hom, Alice Y., “Unifying Differences: Lesbian of Color Community Building In Los Angeles and New York, 1970s–1980s,” (PhD diss., Claremont Graduate University, 2011).
Hunter, Nan D. “Marriage, Law and Gender: A Feminist Inquiry,” in Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture, eds. Lisa Duggan and Nan D. Hunter (New York: Routledge, 1995).
Jeffreys, Sheila. “Butch and Femme: Now and Then” Gossip 5 (1987): 65–95.
Jordan, Mark. Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusion of Christian Marriage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Klarman, Michael. From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Lewin, Ellen. Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Trumansburg, New York: Crossing Press, 1984), 110–13.
Martin, Biddy. Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being Lesbian. New York: Routledge Press, 1996.
Mumford, Kevin J. “The Trouble with Gay Rights: Race and the Politics of Sexual Orientation in Philadelphia, 1969-1982,” Journal of American History 98:1 (June 2011): 62.
-----. “Untangling Pathology: The Moynihan Report and Homosexual Damage, 1965-1975,” Journal of Policy History 24:1 (2012): 53-73.
Nestle, Joan. “Butch-femme relationships: sexual courage in the 1950s,” in A Restricted Country, Ithaca: Firebrand, 1987, pp. 100–9.
Pierceson, Jason. Same-sex Marriage in the United States: The Road to the Supreme Court. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013.
Ramírez, Horacio N. Roque. “‘That's My Place!’: Negotiating Racial, Sexual, and Gender Politics in San Francisco's Gay Latino Alliance, 1975-1983,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 12.2 (2003).
Rubin, Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, ed. Carole S. Vance (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), pp. 267–329.
Stein, Marc. City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945–1972. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Stiers, Gretchen A. From This Day Forward: Commitment, Marriage and Family in Lesbian and Gay Relationships. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Thorpe, Roey. “The Changing Face of Lesbian Bars in Detroit, 1938–1965,” in Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories, ed. Brett Beemyn. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Valverde, Mariana. “A New Entity in the History of Sexuality: The Respectable Same-Sex Couple,” Feminist Studies 32, no. 1 (Spring 2006).
Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics and the Ethics of Queer Life. Durham, North Carolina: Harvard University Press, 2000.
