A Review of Same-Sex Marriage and Children: A Tale of History, Social Science, and Law
Same-Sex Marriage and Children is a history of how both the law and social science culminated in court cases that ultimately led to the success of marital equality in Obergefell. Professor Carlos A. Ball, Distinguished Professor of Law & Judge Frederick Lacey Scholar at Rutgers University Law School, has law degrees from both Cambridge University (UK, 1995) and the Columbia University School of Law (1990). He states that the purpose of his book was to “bring together historical, social science, and legal considerations and analyses to explore the role that procreative and child welfare claims have played in
policy and legal debates involving same-sex marriage” (p. 6). In chapter one, the book reviews conservative attempts to derail a number of past legal challenges to traditional assumptions about the nature and role of marriage and parenting. Chapters two and three delve into some of the false arguments about the alleged procreational function of marriage that would have (allegedly) been damaged by legal acceptance of same-sex marriage or other false arguments that marital status per se, parent’s gender, or a parent’s biological relationship to a child had material effects on child outcomes.