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The question of gay marriage has been one of the most important reforms of family law introduced in recent years, occupying a prominent role on the political agendas of several western countries. While academic scholarship has paid considerable attention to the mobilization of gay and lesbian groups, the actors opposed to same sex marriage have been largely disregarded. This book aims to enhance our understanding of the outbreak and failure of the mobilizations against gay marriage in western Europe by studying the identity, motivations and actions of the actors that opposed gay marriage in four countries (UK, Ireland, France, and Italy) where the public debate on the introduction of full marriage rights for same-sex couples followed four different paradigmatic trajectories.

Presenting new empirical research including interview material, and adopting a cross-disciplinary and comparative analytical perspective, the author adopts a cross-disciplinary and comparative analytical perspective to offer insights not only into the conditions that allow religiously-inspired actors to influence family laws, but also into the changing dynamics of the secularization process in western Europe and the outbreak of new social movements in defence of religious cultural norms. The study of the opposition to gay marriage thus represents a means to investigate the renewed role of religion in western European countries during an historical period characterized by remarkable changes in their social values. As such Contesting Same Sex Marriage in Western Europe will appeal to scholars and students of the sociology of religion, public policy analysis and new social movements