Beyond the Expansion Framework: How Same-Sex Marriage Changes the Institutional Meaning of Marriage and Heterosexual Men's Conception of Marriage

Abstract

Courts should not make the mistake of believing that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples is only a matter of extending to such couples the legal benefits and obligations of marriage. Redefinition changes meaning for all, not just a few new members to the institution. Social institutions are constituted by legal and social meanings that shape and guide human behavior. Marriage, foremost among our social institutions, has profound connections with child welfare and adult male identity. Marriage cannot simply be redefined in non-gendered terms without significant consequences. Much as no-fault divorce changed the presumed permanence of marriage, creating adverse consequences for many children, abandoning the gendered definition of marriage threatens to further destabilize marriage as a key definer and shaper of mature male identity. This, in turn, is likely to further alienate men from marriage, resulting in harm to marriage’s vital role in advancing child welfare — and particularly in maximizing the likelihood that children, as much as possible, will be reared by a father as well as a mother. While the precise effects of redefining marriage cannot be known with statistical certainty, these risks are rational and reasonable and should not be ignored.