Legal Counseling and the Marriage Decision: The Impact of Same‐Sex Marriage on Family Law Practice

• Date: 01 February 2018
• Author: Amanda K. Baumle
• Published date: 01 February 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12294

A K. B University of Houston

Legal Counseling and the Marriage Decision: The

Impact of Same-Sex Marriage on Family Law

Practice

Objective: To examine the role of family law

attorneys in providing counsel regarding the

legal rights, vulnerabilities, and implications of

marriage for their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and

transgender (LGBT) clients.

Background: Although the acquisition of state

and federal marital rights could result in a

convergence of practice experiences for fam-

ily lawyers representing LGBT and heterosexual

clients, the contentious legal history surround-

ing LGBT individuals could continue to produce

different client demands surrounding marriage.

Method: This study draws on in-depth inter-

views with 21 family law attorneys with LGBT

clients.

Results: Participants attributed the demand for

legal counseling about the marriage decision to

a lack of socialization into marriage and uncer-

tainty and skepticism regardingthe permanence

of legal changes. They indicated requests for

legal counseling varied by age cohort and by the

legal and sociopolitical context in which clients

were nested.

Conclusion: The practice of family lawyers has

been responsive to rapid legaland cultural shifts

for LGBT individuals and their families, result-

ing in the emergence of new foci of legal coun-

seling surrounding the marriage decision.

Department of Sociology, Universityof Houston, 450 Philip

G. Hoffman Hall, Houston, TX 77204 (akbaumle@uh.edu).

Key Words: Family policy and law, LGBT, marriage and

marital relationships, same-sex marriage.

Implications: Family lawyers might consider a

more concerted effort to offer legal counsel-

ing about the marriage decision, particularly

for older LGBT clients, those living in negative

sociopolitical environments, and different-sex

couples.

As of June 2017, an estimated 547,000 same-sex

couples in the United States were married, with

approximately 157,000 of those couples mar-

rying since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015

national marriage equality decision in Oberge-

fell v. Hodges (Romero, 2017). These increasing

numbers of married same-sex couples follow a

long and contentious battle by the lesbian, gay,

bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community

for state and federal marriage rights (Richman,

2014). The history surrounding the same-sex

marriage movement is likely to shape the per-

spectives of those affected, including whether

LGBT individuals choose to exercise this new

right and the meanings they construct about

marriage (Baumle & Compton, 2017; Goldberg,

Weber, Moyer, & Shapiro, 2014). Survey data

indicate, for example, that approximately 46%

of those who identify as LGBT view the acquisi-

tion of legal rights as a “very important” reason

to marry, in contrast to only 23% of those who

do not identify as LGBT (Pew Research Center,

2013). Given the historical context and uneven

social norms and expectations, LGBT individ-

uals might have different motivations to marry.

For family lawyers, this means that LGBT

192 Family Relations 67 (February 2018): 192–206

DOI:10.1111/fare.12294