The meanings of marriage: Gender, sexuality, and heteronormativity in the 2004 San Francisco same-sex weddings

In a national climate of increasing contestation over same-sex marriage, a heated debate has emerged among scholars over whether same-sex marriage contests or reinforces heteronormativity, defined as the social assumption of heterosexuality as both natural and common that holds people accountable to traditional gender domestic arrangements and reproductive sexuality. As a powerful social institution through which rights and responsibilities are doled out, marriage has historically been used to privilege heterosexual relationships and simultaneously mark them as simply normal or ordinary, reinforcing presumptions that everyone is heterosexual and, moreover, the prescription that heterosexuality is normal. With the advent of same-sex marriage, some see an opportunity to disrupt the relationship between marriage and heteronormativity while others argue that the hegemony of heterosexuality will be further entrenched. This study brings empirical data to this debate, using data from semi-structured interviews with a sample of the more than 8,000 individuals who married during the 2004 same-sex weddings, as well as with key informants from social movement organizations engaged in the campaign for marriage equality and public officials.;In this dissertation, I draw upon and extend insights from critical heterosexuality studies, scholars of gender, the literature on marriage and the family, and social movement theory to understand the personal and social meanings of the same-sex marriages that took place in San Francisco and to analyze the impact of these marriages on both participants and broader social processes. I find that the majority of couples characterized their marriages as an opportunity to contest heteronormativity, but that nearly as many also cited their desire for access to the normative benefits of marriage, such as social recognition and legal rights. My findings also reveal that the pattern of ascribing meaning to marriage varied by parenthood status and, in turn, gender, with lesbian parents more likely to embrace normative meanings for their marriages and non-parents defining their marriages as actions to contest heteronormativity. Same-sex marriage, I argue, cannot be understood as simply reifying or contesting heteronormativity, as scholars have debated, and instead, through its accompanying narratives, both cites and disrupts the association of marriage and heteronormativity.