Kimberly Creasap
Visiting Lecturer in Sociology
David Paternotte, (Department of Political Science, Free University of Brussels), visited the University of Pittsburgh in March 2014 to give lectures on same-sex marriage as part of the program’s “Gender and the Global” series. On the evening prior to his university lecture, Dr. Paternotte visited my Sociology of Marriage course, presenting a talk titled “Same-Sex Marriage and the Transformation of the Gay & Lesbian Movement.” Before he began his talk, Paternotte asked students why they were taking a course on marriage. Answers varied widely—as they do each semester—from “I hope to get married someday” to “I don’t understand people who want to get married” to “My mothers-in-law are lesbians and I want to know more about same-sex marriage politics.”
[David Paternotte]
David Paternotte gives a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh.
Using comparative data on same-sex marriage movements in Belgium, France, and Spain, Paternotte explained how demands for marriage represent a major shift in the agendas of gay and lesbian movements. Gay liberation movements in the 1970s decried marriage as an oppressive institution with no place in their revolutionary visions for the future. So how has marriage come to dominate contemporary gay and lesbian movements in Europe? Paternotte pointed out three factors that contributed to this shift: changing ideas about marriage, the impact of HIV/AIDS, and a generational change. Early gay liberation movements viewed marriage as a bourgeois institution that would institutionalize gay and lesbian relationships, thus limiting their revolutionary potential. While this argument is upheld by contemporary queer theorists, it certainly does not represent mainstream gay and lesbian movements. Contemporary movements approach the subject of marriage from a legal and rights-based framework: to deny the right to marry is discrimination. These changing attitudes, Paternotte points out, have been influenced by the HIV/AIDS crisis of the early 1980s, which created a new consciousness for the need to protect same-sex couples and urgency for legal solutions and reforms. A second related factor is the generational shift within the movement. The people who are calling for marriage rights are not the same people who opposed marriage as “a prison of desire” in the 1970s. Many of today’s activists have been raised in societies where shifts in ideas about marriage and the HIV/AIDS epidemic were already realities. Students responded with questions about variations in the three countries’ movements, the legal differences between registered partnerships and marriage, and what benefits (both material and symbolic) came with legal marriage.
Several of these students were in attendance on Tuesday, March 18, when Dr. Paternotte gave a university-wide lecture titled “Same-Sex Marriage: From Europe to the Global Arena.” The room quickly filled to beyond capacity with both students and faculty standing along the back and sides of the room. In this lecture, Paternotte provided an in-depth look at another important factor in the rise of same-sex marriage movements: the global diffusion of movement ideas. With a focus on Europe as a starting point, Paternotte discussed how legal claims for same-sex marriage have become an important part of global politics outside of Europe and North America. Activists use media campaigns and international meetings to diffuse ideas about marriage, family, and legal rights from one part of the world to another. Dr. Helma de Vries-Jordan, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, and Anthony C. Infanti, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh, responded to the lecture, emphasizing comparisons with the United States and the future of marriage, protest, and democracy. The event was sponsored by GSWS and by Pitt's European Union Center of Excellence.
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