We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
ALL THAT HEAVEN WILL ALLOW: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE COEXISTENCE OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND GAY MATRIMONIAL BANS.
- Authors
BOWEN, DEIRDRE M.
- Abstract
This Article offers the first analysis to date of national data evaluating whether defense of marriage acts (mini or super-DOMAs) preserve and stabilize the family. After finding that they do not--just as same-sex marriage does not appear to destabilize families--the Article analyzes what variables are, in fact, associated with family stability. Specifically, those variables are: families below the poverty line; men and women married three or more times; religiosity; percent conservative versus liberal in a state; disposable income; percent with a bachelor's degree; and median age of first marriage. States that are more likely to have enacted a DOMA are also more likely to have high divorce or never-married rates. And in turn, these same states are more likely to include poor families, in which people marry young, are highly religious, and are politically conservative. Next, the Article applies the sociological concepts of moral entrepreneurism and moral panic, defined, respectively, as the practice of political groups labeling certain behavior as deviant, and the reframing of a social phenomenon in moral terms to create an exaggerated sense of fear. These concepts serve as the theoretical explanation for mini-DOMAs' continued entrenchment, even in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court's Windsor decision that struck down Section 3 of the federal DOMA. Finally, the Article offers pragmatic recommendations for achieving family stability in light of mini-DOMAs' inability to succeed in this goal.
- Subjects
UNITED States; SAME-sex marriage; MATRIMONIAL actions (Law); UNITED States. Defense of Marriage Act; FAMILY stability; MORAL panics; DIVORCE statistics; UNITED States v. Windsor; LEGAL judgments; U.S. states; SAME-sex marriage laws
- Publication
Denver University Law Review, 2014, Vol 91, Issue 2, p277
- ISSN
0883-9409
- Publication type
Article