Here Come the Brides!

Book excerpt: Marriage today isn't what it used to be: for better, not for worse. As same-sex weddings are becoming more common, the classic love-story happy ending is taking on a decidedly new twist, everyone has a fresh role to play, and supporters and opponents of gay marriage alike are finding themselves in the midst of a revolution that's redefining marriage—both as a personal choice and as an institution—as we know it. In Here Come the Brides!, editors Audrey Bilger and Michele Kort gather together the voices of women taking part in-and shaping-this major historical shift. Representing a diversity of points of view in terms of race, class, ethnicity, and gender identification, this collection of essays, stories, and visual images takes a multidimensional look at how opening up the traditional order of "man and wife" to include the possibility of "wife and wife" is altering our social landscape. From wedding pictures and images of protest signs to comical anecdotes and sober philosophical analyses, Here Come the Brides! is an exploration of how the legalization of same-sex marriages has irrevocably changed the way lesbians think about their unions and their lives-and a celebration of the dream of lesbian happily-ever-afters.