The power of marriage as a guarantor of gender identity and sexual hierarchy, a paradigm of democratic consent, an island of economic security, a mechanism for racial solidarity, and the scaffolding of citizenship itself explains the passion of these debates (Duggan 2004a). Despite the constitutional separation of church and state, the Protestant model of marriage has historically been a prerequisite for belonging to “America.” Merely allowing same-sex couples this privilege will not change that. The critical tasks ahead include continuing to ask what other hierarchical institutions marriage serves or is implicated in. At the same time, we must look beyond marriage and couplehood by working to democratize support for the diverse household structures and emotional bonds that organize people’s lives.

This is an excerpt from Elizabeth Freeman’s entry in Keywords for American Cultural Studies (pp 155-156).