Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of GLBT Family Studies on 17/02/2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1550428X.2015.1104273
Accepted author manuscript, 162 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - We’re all same (sex) now?
T2 - lesbian (same) sex ;consummation; adultery and marriage
AU - Beresford, Sarah
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of GLBT Family Studies on 17/02/2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1550428X.2015.1104273
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - This article argues that in the Marriage (Same Sex) Couples Act 2013 applicable in England and Wales should have included non-consummation as grounds for annulment and adultery as a fact of divorce. The absence of these two concepts is representative of a failure by law to fully accept the importance of equality. As such, the legislation will continue to perpetuate formal and substantive inequality resulting in the continued repression of women who marry women. This will have important ramifications for the citizenship of intimacy for such women to which rights, duties and obligations will attach. The legal ability of women who marry women to join the ‘marriage club’, as it is currently defined, will not queer or radically challenge marriage. Whilst it might have been ‘easier’ to abandon the concepts of consummation and adultery altogether, only widening the concepts of consummation and adultery to include same sex couples, would offer the potentiality to undertake a queering of marriage. To exclude these concepts risks perpetuating the idea that gay men and lesbians are not sexual beings. Given the heteropatriarchal nature of the concepts of adultery and consummation, this article specifically focuses upon how same sex marriage will affect women who marry women as opposed to what is commonly termed the LGBTQ community.
AB - This article argues that in the Marriage (Same Sex) Couples Act 2013 applicable in England and Wales should have included non-consummation as grounds for annulment and adultery as a fact of divorce. The absence of these two concepts is representative of a failure by law to fully accept the importance of equality. As such, the legislation will continue to perpetuate formal and substantive inequality resulting in the continued repression of women who marry women. This will have important ramifications for the citizenship of intimacy for such women to which rights, duties and obligations will attach. The legal ability of women who marry women to join the ‘marriage club’, as it is currently defined, will not queer or radically challenge marriage. Whilst it might have been ‘easier’ to abandon the concepts of consummation and adultery altogether, only widening the concepts of consummation and adultery to include same sex couples, would offer the potentiality to undertake a queering of marriage. To exclude these concepts risks perpetuating the idea that gay men and lesbians are not sexual beings. Given the heteropatriarchal nature of the concepts of adultery and consummation, this article specifically focuses upon how same sex marriage will affect women who marry women as opposed to what is commonly termed the LGBTQ community.
KW - Adultery
KW - Consummation
KW - Law
KW - Lesbians
KW - Same sex marriage
U2 - 10.1080/1550428X.2015.1104273
DO - 10.1080/1550428X.2015.1104273
M3 - Journal article
VL - 12
SP - 468
EP - 490
JO - Journal of GLBT Family Studies
JF - Journal of GLBT Family Studies
SN - 1550-4298
IS - 5
ER -