Nicole Knight
Staff Writer
E.J. Graff, author and journalist on lesbian and gay civil rights, visited Southern California’s universities to present a lecture on same-sex marriage.
Graff discussed same-sex marriage rights from a historical and social point of view. During her discussion, she examined the following questions in context of the national debate: Do we marry for sex? Do we marry as equals? Do we marry for love? Do we marry for justice? What is marriage for?
“Marriage has always been a social battle ground, constantly fought over and is constantly changing to suit each era and economy, each culture and class,” Graff said.
The speaker took the audience through the history of marriage from the parental prearrangement of spouses to the legalization of birth control.
A visiting scholar from the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center in Waltham, Mass., Graff discussed topics from her book, “What is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution.”
Graff spoke at three universities including Cal Poly Pomona on Oct. 11, University of Southern California on Oct. 12 and UC Riverside on Oct. 14.
At UCR, an audience of more than 150 attendees actively listened to Graff’s presentation. A question and answer session and book signing after her lecture was offered.
“Marriage has not in fact been one solid immutable, historically monogamous institution for 6,000 years, it is always changing,” Graff said.
According to Graff, the national debate on same-sex marriage was not about the inner bond of couples, the wedding ceremony or religious factors involved, but over the concept of civil marriage, offering lesbian and gay couples justice.
“Opening marriage’s gates to same-sex couples is the right thing to do, because it would lead to an increase in justice when there are disputes over death, divorce or disaster,” Graff said.
Graff said her argument was not over the morality or fairness of allowing same-sex marriage, but over the civil recognition.
“I thought she presented some very valid arguments that same-sex marriage is historically going to happen and people do not know that there is a natural evolution of marriage, and I think it’s the next step,” said Kandarpa Cousineall, a third year UCR student.
For many of the audience members, Graff’s lecture gave them confidence to argue for their beliefs on same-sex marriage. Audience members agreed after Graff’s lecture, they understood the historical background of marriage and how the institution was progressively changed. Instead of relying on their “gut” for same-sex marriage justification, they now felt they had the factual proof to defend their beliefs.
Nicole Knight can be reached at stareknight17@charter.net.
