Joseph DeFilippis: Beyond Marriage Equality

Joseph DeFilippis, a founder of Queers for Economic Justice and drafter of the Beyond Same-Sex Marriage Statement, talks with Bill Resnick about the limits of the marriage-equality movement and what comes next. He notes the inadequacy of marriage as a legal frame for diverse families; the benefits of civil unions and domestic partnerships for straight as well as queer families and the loss of these options as same-sex marriage laws pass; and the problem of linking so many legal rights to marriage. He also points out the ways that gay marriage advocates have often been complicit in conservative rhetoric, using language that stigmatizes the unmarried and endorses marriage as the only way to validate a relationship. He stresses the neoliberal use of marriage as a way of privatizing caregiving, and calls for more attention to the problems of poverty in diverse queer communities.