Instead of trying to fit into the American definition of family, Browning tells Laura Miller, gays should be expanding it. What I find unsatisfying about the gay political movement's concentration on marriage is that it doesn't deal with the larger problem of family structure in America.
Families are troubled.
They aren't even able to hold together for the duration of their primary function now, which is to provide a nest for the rearing of children. If we look at the Ozzie and Harriet model, these nuclear families don't seem to be carrying the load. Marriage counselors are forever pointing out that there's too much burden on this frail unit of two adults with two jobs and 2.4 children. In the traditional extended family we had a variety of intense, intimate emotional relationships of parenting, caring and nurturing so that the burden on each one was much lighter. But they were authoritarian, patriarchal and suffocating.