Nation of Bastards: Essays on the End of Marriage

A brilliant exposé of the implications of same-sex marriage - and a compelling analysis of what it will take for society to reclaim the birthright of freedom it has lost in a reckless social experiment.

To some, same-sex marriage is evidence that society has finally come of age. To others, it is yesterday's issue, posing no danger to traditional marriage. To still others - McGill University's Douglas Farrow among them - it has turned civil society on its ear, creating a new political situation in which several things are no longer clear:

. Is the state the property of the citizenry? Or are citizens, with their cherished personal associations, including marriage, now the property of the state?

. Who "owns" the children, now that natural parenthood had been replaced by legal parenthood?

. Is the family still "the natural and fundamental group unit of society," as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights claims? Or is the concept of the "natural" moribund?

. What is marriage for, anyway?

Douglas Farrow is associate professor of Christian Thought at McGill University in Montreal. He is the editor of Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society and co-editor, with Daniel Cere, of Divorcing Marriage.