Unhitched : love, marriage, and family values from West Hollywood to western China / Judith Stacey.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Tolstoy was wrong -- Love, sex, and kinship in Gay El Lay -- Gay parenthood and the end of paternity as we knew it -- A South African slant on the slippery slope -- Paradoxes of polygamy and modernity -- Unhitching the horse from the carriage : love without marriage among the Mosuo -- Conclusion: forsaking no others -- Appendix. A Co-parenting Agreement.

Discusses both sides of the debate over same-sex marriage, describes diverse families from California, South Africa, and China, and examines twenty-first-century interpretations on polygamy and the benefits it poses to women and children, the rejection of marriage in multigenerational households among the Mosuo people of southwest China, and related topics.