June 28, 2011 • Category: Blog
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The same-sex marriage bill that passed through New York courts on Friday had all the ingredients for a great story. Underdog: check. Suspense: check. Champions, changes of loyalty, impassioned speeches: check. The bill addressed one of the most divisive and talked-about issues of the decade. Its fate was uncertain until moments before the vote. When it passed at 10:30 Friday night, celebrators poured into the streets of the city where the Gay Rights movement got its start forty-two years ago. Happy ending: check. It even ends in a wedding. Lots of them. What more could we want?
“I wanted to read writers considering [gay marriage] thoughtfully, explaining to me the nuances of this debate, why it might feel like such a threat to some, why it might be downright cruel to prevent others from marrying, and why many gay people looking around themselves at the poor record of heterosexual marriages were wary of marriage altogether.”
– Kathy Pories, from the Preface of The M Word
While it’s worth worth celebrating the bill in New York, it’s also worth looking at the bigger picture. We have just the book. The M Word is a deeply human and often hilarious collection of essays on same-sex marriage, edited by Algonquin Senior Editor Kathy Pories. The essays range from bawdy, irreverent satire (George Saunders, on why we should ban not only same-sex marriage but same-ish sex marriage) to poignant personal essays about first crushes and lost love (see: Kathleen Finneran’s “Crock-Pots: A Confession”). Taken together, they present an insightful and nuanced portrait not just of same-sex marriages, but of marriage as a whole. The authors include Dan Savage, Francine Prose, Michael Parker, Alexander Chee, Stacey D’Erasmo, David Leavitt, Wendy McClure, and more.
–Jordan Castelloe, Blog Intern
Tags: Alexander Chee, civil rights, Dan Savage, David Leavitt, Francine Prose, gay marriage, George Saunders, Kathleen Finneran, Kathy Pories, Michael Parker, New York, same-sex marriage, Stacey D'Erasmo, The M Word, Wendy McClure
