研究生英语阅读教程(基础级2版)课本04.doc

READING SELECTION A The Transformation of Marriage By Stephen Bertman [1] To be sure, ours is not the first time in modern history when efforts have been made to redefine traditional marriage. The communal group marriages of the 1960s and the individualistic open marriages of the 1970s each challenged the notion of a nonnegotiable contract between one woman and one man. The frequency of cohabitation, whether as a prelude to or as a substitute for a ceremony with legal force, has further undermined the concept of wedlock as a discrete and distinctive state. All of these challenges, however, were or are predicated upon a relationship that is heterosexual, fashioned upon the Adam-and-Eve template. The most recent and radical challenge to traditional marriage, however, rejects this religious template. Same-Sex Marriage: Action and Reaction [2] Inspired by the activism in the 1960s that secured political and economic rights for blacks and women, American gays and lesbians mobilized to end what they viewed as the discriminatory practice of granting marriage licenses only to heterosexual couples. As law professor William N. Eskridge Jr. has stated in his book, The Case for Same-Sex Marriage (Free Press, 1996): Marriage is the most important right the state has to offer, in part because being married entails dozens of associated rights, benefits, and obligations under state and federal law. These pertain to such matters as parenthood, property ownership, guardianship, and inheritance. [3] Outside the United States, however, efforts to legitimize same-sex marriage have met with more success. In 2001 the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to provide civil marriage ceremonies for homosexual couples. In 2003, Belgium followed suit. And in 2002 and 2003, courts in three Canadian Provinces ruled that the denial of marriage to same-sex couples constituted a violation of Canadas Charter of Rights. Interspecies Marriage [4] The exploration of outer space may result i