Welcome

The recent controversy surrounding same sex marriage has forced many to rethink historical conceptions of marriage as a civil, social, and ecclesiastical institution.

This Yale Law School symposium will focus on the myriad strands of this debate by concentrating on emerging research related to marriage, critical race theory, gender, and sexuality studies.

The symposium will unite scholars and policy makers representing diverse backgrounds and positions to generate an informed, balanced debate on the following initial questions:

• What’s really at stake in the same-sex-marriage debate?
• Why is the debate coming to the popular forefront now, and under whose power?
• What viewpoints regarding same-sex marriage are gaining or losing power in the political world, and how will political changes influence the future of same-sex marriage?
• How do notions of same-sex marriage manifest for people of different races, and how does religion inform these notions within and across different races?
• How do notions of same-sex marriage manifest for different genders, and how do different family structures – historical, socio-economic and regional - shape gender roles and identity?
• What lessons can be drawn from international forms of alternative family structures, and how should we apply those lessons in making marriage policy in the United States?
• How does the recent legislative and Constitutional activity at the federal and state level shape the future of same-sex marriage?
• How should the government be involved in structuring and regulating relationships of intimacy and dependence?
• Should such regulation be enacted at the federal, state, or local level?