2006 Articles

A Historical Guide To The Future Of Marriage For Same-Sex Couples

Goldberg, Suzanne B.

The history of marriage has been one of evolution, not of static immutability, with marriage surviving innumerable changes to its core rules over the last two centuries. These changes to the institution of marriage over time have rendered the current rule excluding same-sex couples from marriage inconsistent with New York law, which has both repudiated gendered marriage rules as unconstitutional and, historically as well as contemporarily, not held procreation to be an essential element of marriage. The City's gender- and procreation-related defenses thus lack any legitimate relationship to the concerns of equality and interdependence that are marriage's now-settled underpinnings. Likewise, the historical and ongoing absence of uniformity between marriage rules of New York and other states demonstrates that claims about uniformity cannot support the rule challenged here.