title: "Let's Talk about the Institution": Same-Sex Common-Law Partners Negotiating Marriage Equality and Relationship Legitimacy.
abstract: The 2005 Canada-wide legalization of same-sex marriage provided same-sex couples with access to an institution they had previous been excluded from. Yet not all couples choose to marry. In this paper, we examine why this is the case, considering the role of personal, political, and historical factors. We draw on 22 interviews with people in common-law same-sex relationships in Toronto to examine how they understand their relationship within the new context of marriage equality. We find that participants feel they are held accountable to marriage as a default relationship legitimacy norm, indicating that this new institutional access is accompanied by a set of social expectations. Despite their awareness of the need to navigate a social context favoring marriage, participants individualize their relationship decisions as personal rather than political. Participants often contradict themselves as they articulate what marriage means to them, suggesting that, in this period of legal and social transition, people are negotiating multiple meanings, societal messages, and traditions when it comes to making sense of their relationship. We discuss the implications of these findings for LGBQ activism and the framing of sexuality-based inequalities in Canadian society.
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia.
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Lyon
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia.
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Frohard-Dourlent
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017008:Negotiating / Q000523:psychology*; D009864:Ontario; D055815:Young Adult