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Article: "Multiply and replenish": considering same-sex marriage in light of state interests in marital procreation.
- Article from:
- Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Harvard Society for Law and Public Policy, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[I]t seems to me at this time we need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.(1)
I. INTRODUCTION
The definition, exclusive status, and legal benefits of marriage may become one of this decade's most important domestic policy issues in the United States. Many articulate and influential scholars, lawmakers, and commentators are asking why the preferred legal status and benefits of marriage should not be extended to unions other than traditional marriages (that is, exclusive, presumably lifelong, state approved consensual unions of a man and a not-closely-related woman).(2) Why should marriage ...