Permanent Partners


Book Description

Permanent Partners, for a decade and a half, has been the authoritative guide to gay and lesbian relationships. In this updated and revised edition, Dr. Betty Berzon offers up-to-the-minute advice on emotional, financial, and legal issues that two men or two women face as they create a life together. She draws on thirty-five years of experience counseling gay couples to help readers improve communication, resolve conflicts, and make their love and commitment last. Book jacket.




The Lesbian and Gay Book of Love and Marriage


Book Description

The authors weave together the experiences of more than 100 lesbian and gay singles and couples to create a personal, groundbreaking account of gay relationships and commitment. 30 photos.




Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships


Book Description

WHEN IT COMES TO SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS, this book by Karen Keen contains the most thoughtful, balanced, biblically grounded discussion you’re likely to encounter anywhere. With pastoral sensitivity and respect for biblical authority, Keen breaks through current stalemates in the debate surrounding faith and sexual identity. The fresh, evenhanded reevaluation of Scripture, Christian tradition, theology, and science in Keen’s Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships will appeal to both traditionalist and progressive church leaders and parishioners, students of ethics and biblical studies, and gay and lesbian people who often feel painfully torn between faith and sexuality.




Before I Do


Book Description

A comprehensive guide to marriage—perks, consequences, and everything in between—aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, from a leading gay rights lawyer. Not long ago, same-sex couples had to jump through endless hoops to make their relationships even close to legal. Happily, those days are over. But here’s the rub: many gay and lesbian couples, accustomed to living off-grid, are so thrilled to have the benefits of marriage that they jump into it without fully considering the consequences. In Before I Do, leading gay rights attorney Elizabeth F. Schwartz spells out the range of practical considerations any couple should address before tying the knot. She explains the rights married couples have—and those they do not. With cameos from some of the most prominent LGBTQ+ professionals, Schwartz explores all of the implications of marriage from name changes and getting a license to taxes, insurance, Social Security, and much more. Chapters on estate planning, pre- and post-nuptial agreements, and organizing finances make Before I Do a crucial handbook for anyone considering marriage—because, as Schwartz explains, just because you can get married does not mean you should. “During my thirty years of covering the gay beat for the Miami Herald, never did I imagine the need for a marriage guide for LGBT couples. Yet today nothing is more urgent. Before I Do guides all couples, gay and otherwise, about the responsibilities of marriage. Ignore it at your peril.” —Steve Rothaus, The Miami Herald




Handbook of LGBT-Affirmative Couple and Family Therapy


Book Description

The editors and contributors of this comprehensive text provide a unique and important contribution to LGBT clinical literature. Spanning 30 chapters, they discuss the diverse and complex issues involved in LGBT couple and family therapy. In almost 15 years, this book provides the first in-depth overview of the best practices for therapists and those in training who wish to work effectively with LGBT clients, couples, and families need to know, and is only the second of its kind in the history of the field. The clinical issues discussed include • raising LGBT children • coming out • elderly LGBT issues • sex therapy • ethical and training issues Because of the breadth of the book, its specificity, and the expertise of the contributing authors and editors, it is the definitive handbook on LGBT couple and family therapy.




Lesbians and Gays in Couples and Families


Book Description

The first book to focus on clinical work with lesbians and gays in family relationships This groundbreaking resource provides you with a wealth of fascinating research and case examples, as well as recommAndations and suggestions for working with gay couples and families. Joan Laird and Robert-Jay Green have gathered a distinguished panel of practitioners to create this comprehensive collection. The contributors address the experiences of lesbians and gay men as couples and as parents?and examine their relationships with the families in which they were raised.




Gay and Lesbian Couples


Book Description

The voices in this book come from the stories of gay and lesbian partners who talk about their struggles over the years in building a life together. The stories reach beyond the obvious realities of sexual orientation to speak to the joys, sorrows, hopes, and fears of human beings who are committed to making their relationships work. Based on a life-span perspective, in-depth interviews of people whose relationships have lasted more than 15 years explored how partners adapted over the years. Each interview consisted of questions that focused upon dimensions of these relationships over time from the unique perspective of each partner. They were asked about conflict over the years, decision-making styles, ways of working out roles, the importance of social supports, and sexual and psychological intimacy. The research upon which the book is based has continuity with the authors' earlier work on lasting relationships among heterosexual couples, including Lasting Marriages: Men and Women Growing Together (Praeger, 1995). Compared to marriages, relatively little research has been done on the development of same sex relationships. This book will be of great interest to all researchers and students of gender differences, marriage and family therapy, human sexuality, and interpersonal relationships.




Equality for Same-Sex Couples


Book Description

During the past three decades, nations all over the world have been debating whether to allow same-sex couples to marry, or at least grant these couples various rights associated with marriage. In Equality for Same-Sex Couples, Yuval Merin presents the first comparative study of the legal regulation of same-sex partnerships worldwide, as well as a unique survey of the status of same-sex couples in Europe. Merin begins by providing a historical overview of the transformation of marriage from antiquity to the present. He then identifies and critically compares four principal models for the legal regulation and recognition of same-sex partnerships: civil marriage, registered partnership, domestic partnership, and cohabitation. Merin concludes that all of the models except civil marriage discriminate against gays and lesbians just as the "separate but equal" doctrine discriminated against African Americans; thus, so-called alternatives to marriage, even if they provide the same rights and benefits as marriage, are inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional.




Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples


Book Description

Here is an essential resource filled with advice for providing social services to gay and lesbian couples. Despite myths to the contrary, many gay men and lesbians form long-term couples relationships. Unfortunately, many professionals working in the area of social services lack training with regard to the special needs of gay/lesbian couples. Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples helps fill this gap by providing information on diverse aspects of gay and lesbian domestic partnerships for social services workers. The contributing authors highlight the unique characteristics of gay and lesbian couples relationships and provide valuable information on the special social services these couples may need. Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples includes the results of a survey that divulge basic, descriptive information on the nature of gay and lesbian couples. These in-depth statistics reveal couples’perspectives on relationship length, commitment, and quality, terms of address for partners, finances, relationship experience, discrimination, living situation, sex, first meetings, support and challenges for the relationship, children, legal arrangements, and concerns about HIV and AIDS. In addition to revealing specific information about gay and lesbian couples, Social Services for Gay and Lesbian Couples also explores the therapeutic implications of this knowledge for social service providers. Chapters discuss specific situations in gay and lesbian relationships about which social workers should be informed, such as the factors involved in the formation of lesbian identities and issues encountered by gay couples when one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not. Also addressed are the special needs of gay or lesbian couples who wish to be parents, complete with descriptions of innovative services and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of national organizations that provide resources for gay or lesbian parents.




The Long Arc of Justice


Book Description

Richard D. Mohr adopts a humanistic and philosophical approach to assessing public policy issues affecting homosexuals. His nuanced case for legal and social acceptance applies widely held ethical principles to various issues, including same-sex marriage, AIDS, and gays in the military. Mohr examines the nature of prejudices and other cultural forces that work against lesbian and gay causes and considers the role that sexuality plays in national rituals. In his support of same-sex marriage, Mohr defines matrimony as the development and maintenance of intimacy through which people meet their basic needs and carry out their everyday living, and he contends that this definition applies equally to homosexual and heterosexual couples. By drawing on culturally, legally, and ethically based arguments, Mohr moves away from tired political rhetoric and reveals the important ways in which the struggle for gay rights and acceptance relates to mainstream American society, history, and political life.