When Gay People Get Married by M.V. Lee Badgett

In the summer of 2008 same-sex couples lined up for marriage licenses in California, and Massachusetts opened marriage to couples from other states. To learn what legal same-sex marriage actually changes, economist M. V. Lee Badgett went to the Netherlands, where it has been legal since 2001, interviewing couples about their relationships, families and colleagues and examining how the institution itself has changed. She finds that marriage changes gay people more than gay people change marriage, that liberal countries and states move first, and that marriage does not destroy the institution while benefiting many couples.