Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial [Paperback]

A renowned legal scholar tells the definitive story ofHollingsworth v. Perry, the trial that stands as the most potent argument for marriage equality

Speak Now tells the story of a watershed trial that unfolded over twelve tense days in California in 2010. A trial that legalized same-sex marriage in our most populous state. A trial that interrogated the nature of marriage, the political status of gays and lesbians, the ideal circumstances for raising children, and the ability of direct democracy to protect fundamental rights. A trial that stands as the most potent argument for marriage equality this nation has ever seen.

In telling the story ofHollingsworth v. Perry, the groundbreaking federal lawsuit against Proposition 8, Kenji Yoshino has also written a paean to the vanishing civil trial--an oasis of rationality in what is often a decidedly uncivil debate. Above all, this book is a work of deep humanity, in which Yoshino brings abstract legal arguments to life by sharing his own story of finding love, marrying, and having children as a gay man.

Intellectually rigorous and profoundly compassionate,Speak Nowis the definitive account of a landmark civil-rights trial.

— Winner, Stonewall Book AwardABoston GlobeBest Book of 2015
Winner of the 2016 ABA Silver Gavel Award for Books

“A valuable contribution….Above all, Yoshino both illuminates and lauds the trial, the ‘truth-finding mechanism’ that puts claims of social convention, distinctions between groups and academic expertise to the test of the adversarial process.” 
—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

An astute exegesis of the Perry trial [and] a tenderhearted memoir...Lucid, subtle and illuminating...A friend-of-the-court brief meant for the global court of public opinion.
—NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Stirring...Yoshinol³.