While what feels like the entirety of the gay and lesbian movement is marching in unison towards some vague notion of equality, the Against Equality collective has been quietly assembling a digital archive to document the critical resistance to the politics of inclusion. This pocket-sized book of archival texts lays out some of the historical foundations of queer resistance to the gay marriage mainstream alongside more contemporary inter-subjective critiques that deal directly with issues of race, class, gender, citizenship, age, ability, and more. In portable book form, the critical conversations that are happening so readily on the internet will no longer be withheld from those with little to no online access like queer and trans prisoners, people of low income, rural folks and the technologically challenged. Contributors include Kate Bornstein, Eric Stanley, Dean Spade, Craig Willse, Kenyon Farrow, Kate Raphael, Deeg, John D’Emilio, Ryan Conrad, Yasmin Nair, Martha Jane Kaufman, Katie Miles, and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.

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"Against Equality makes the powerful argument that same-sex marriage is an essentially conservative cause, an effort to prop up a fundamentally unfair system. As an alternative, it offers us the inspiring vision of a truly radical queer politics, devoted to attacking injustice, not just allowing a few more gay people to benefit from it." – Walter Benn Michaels, The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality

"Rather than being merely anti-marriage, the book deliberately articulates multiple alternative visions – such as building and valuing our own grassroots familial 'networks of accountability' – thus edging us closer to true 'equality,' or dare I say liberation, celebrating our differences as queers. – Jessica Max Stein

"A powerful, moving read from a side often overlooked by mainstream society. A must read for anyone 'for' or 'against' gay marriage." – Steve Mason

[This Anthology] brings to light that a venomous black-and-white rhetorical split has developed on gay marriage. The dichotomous engagement with the issue is damaging to the cohesion of the GLBTQ community and stops discussions short. This collection offers valuable, if controversial, much needed nuance to a radically fractured debate." – Ericka Steckle

Reader Reviews

Amber Lea

(3/5)

May 13, 2024

I feel like the writers in this book misunderstand a lot. There's this common "either/or" argument running throughout all these essays that if you're for gay marriage you're against everything else worth fighting for...and therefore you're a classist, racist, transphobic a-hole. I think you can be for gay marriage and still give a shit about poor people and poly people and people of color and genderqueers and everyone else.And let me clarify that I have no intention to ever get married and I hav...

Gaetano Venezia

(4/5)

A decent introduction to the shortcomings of the marriage equality movement. However, the first few essays seemed to raise many of the same concerns with little support or explication.——MJ Kaufman and Katie Miles——"…the consequences of the fight for legal inclusion [of same-sex couples] in the marriage structure are terrifying. We're seeing queer communities fractured as one model of family is being hailed and accepted as the norm, and we are seeing queer families and communities ignore and effe...

Greta

(2/5)

Some of the essays resonated with me more than others, but all raised interesting critiques that I hadn't thought of before about the marriage equality movement, gays serving in the military, and hate crime classifications. It could be hard to get past the way the tone of the writing could often make the reader feel attacked, but writers shouldn't have to pander to readers' sensitivity to get their point across, so I tried to be objective and stick with it.

Dana Lee

It wasn't so much the writing style that made me like this but the challenges to my thinking that happened. It is written from an American standpoint, so being Canadian I didn't find all of the arguments relevant.

Wendy

Last night, in an attempt to finish all the books I've begun by the end of the year, I finished this thing called Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage. One essay was quite outstanding, a couple were good, many made some good points, and some were so fucking obnoxious that I not only want to kill the book by slow, painful, controlled fire, but also rip it into shreds and hear it scream, then throw it from a mountaintop into a raging river, only to have it reincarnate just so I can ki...

Liz

I am kind of hostile to this whole thing because being radically anti-marriage actually is the mainstream position in my social circles, and I guess I'm feeling a personal backlash to the backlash. I get frustrated because I kind of agree but think it's a bit of a misdirection of energy. why not spend your time actually working on the issues you think we should prioritise over marriage? working to dismantle the border or the prison industrial complex or get universal health care, rather than wri...

Emma

(5/5)

this was so easy to power through!! a whole bunch of righteous and unapologetically brutal critiques of gaystream marriage campaigns. it was refreshing to read succinct and accessible rants that progress (relatively) logically to condemn the reformist, civil-rights appropriative and privilege-consolidating arguments for gay marriage. these are campaigns that have cost the GLBTQ community and its allies A LOT over the past decade in the U.S. - in terms of time, money and also in terms of the seve...

I wanted to like this book much more than I did. As a historical document about a particular moment in the marriage frenzy of gay America, it's pretty good. As a political text that addresses marriage abolition in transnational or philosophical terms it was very uneven and unsatisfying, primarily because several of the arguments against gay marriage become null when applied to stronger welfare states. Opposing marriage because you think everyone should have universal healthcare makes sense if yo...

Devin

An incredible, revolutionary compilation of queer/trans writers critiquing the false progress of marriage equality, instead calling for a critique and dismantling of capitalism-imperialism, racism, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, etc. I have said for many years now that gay marriage was the tipping point for many "activists" and what I mean is: when they got gay marriage, they tipped their hats and left the movement. I have lived in the same damn city for nearly 8 years now! and th...

Bryan

Presents essential dissenting viewpoints on what is now an even bigger debate (if that was possible). Kenyon Farrow’s essay is particularly stand out in its analysis of the perceived divide between GLBTQ and African American communities. I have two dissenting points of my own: 1) if you frame your policy position with the language “against equality” you are not making it any easier on yourself; 2) perhaps a position against marriage is the minority one in both queer and hetero communities. If th...

Amanda

This book is fantastic and extremely accessible. Most of the essays were originally published on blogs. The essays discuss the authors' very practical objections to same-sex marriage. Generally, they argue that marriage is a historically fucked up institution that shouldn't have legal privileges attached to it. Because most of the privileges marriage confers tend to benefit (or are only accessible to) middle class queers, the authors don't see same-sex marriage as being a benefit to a majority o...

Steph Mclean

I am still digesting this one.

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Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage

Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage

Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage

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