The ambiguity of lesbian and gay marriages: change and continuity in the symbolic order.

The article discusses the Registered Partnership Act, passed in Norway in 1993, which has given gay and lesbian couples a right to register their relationship and to obtain many of the legal rights that heterosexual couples have. The article argues that the introduction of the Act is a product of, among others, cohabitation having become more legitimate as a life-form also among heterosexuals. The practical consequences of the Act have been modest, with relatively few couples having registered their relationship. The article suggests that the symbolic rather than the practical aspects of the Act have been important, and even then, the symbolic effect of the Act is equivocal. The new formal rights of gays and lesbians are of decreasing social and symbolic value, as new boundaries for legitimate life-forms are being demarcated elsewhere: While legislation on marriage concedes that personal relationships are a private matter, the right to have and to foster children is regarded as an issue where society at large should have a say. This view is also reflected in the restrictions that the Registered Partnership Act has placed on gay and lesbian couples in having children of their own.