Drawing on in-depth interviews with 41 married individuals across diverse gender identities, sexual orientations, and relationship structures, this book demonstrates how people both reproduce and resist gender and sexual inequalities embedded in marriage. Rather than portraying marriage as either wholly oppressive or fully transformed, the book shows that it exists in a state of tension. Individuals rely on marriage for its legal protections and social legitimacy, yet many simultaneously challenge or queer its assumptions about monogamy, gender roles, and sexual identity. Through analyses of legal decision-making, naming practices, nonmonogamy, and LGBTQ+ identities, the book reveals how marriage continues to regulate relationships even as people attempt to reshape it from within. Ultimately, the book contends that the future of marriage depends not on preserving tradition, but on recognizing and legitimizing diverse forms of intimacy, care, and kinship that extend beyond its conventional boundaries.
