Promoting Marriage for America: The Intimate Relationship Between the State and Heterosexuality

This chapter addresses the question of how the gendered and sexualized state responds to crisis tendencies in the institution of heterosexuality. Drawing on research conducted on the marriage initiative in Oklahoma, the chapter examines governmental policies to promote marriage that seek to stabilize the norm of white, middle-class, heterosexual marriage through what I call “marital heterosexuality.” The state fortified marital heterosexuality by: 1) providing classes that drew white, middle-class couples and focused on the breakdown of these types of families; 2) teaching about gender as the visible problem for couples to reinforce the importance of marital heterosexuality; and 3) focusing on marital heterosexuality that excluded lesbian and gay couples.