Presenter biographies will be linked below as they become available. Final program subject to change.
The presentations in this session each demonstrate the presumptions about marriage relationships that underlie marriage law and marriage litigation in different contexts. Two presentations examine the biases of Canadian marriage law by examining the ways mainstream Canadian LGBT organizations framed marriage during that debate (Nick Mulé), and analyzing a case filed after same-sex marriage became law that upheld the criminalization of polygamy (Melanie Heath). Jennifer Gaboury’s presentation broadens out the discussion, proposing a human “right to form a family” as a way to avoid the sorts of limiting assumptions discussed in the other presentations.
Nick Mulé: “The Debate that Wasn’t: Implications of Same-Sex Marriage on the Canadian LGBTQ Movement” (full abstract)
Melanie Heath: “From Marriage Equality to Polygamy? The Homonormative Family and Canadian Law” (full abstract)
Jennifer Gaboury: “The Right to Form a Family: Using Human Rights Principles to Move Beyond Civil Marriage” (full abstract)