"Stanley Kurtz is the 'EverReady Bunny' of the same-sex marriage debate, a character who moves forward unrelentingly on a quest to prove that same-sex marriages are harmful. He is sure that state recognition of lesbian and gay unions in Europe has harmed the institution of marriage. But he never quite settles on a reason why this should be so, and his most recent argument illustrates the wildly unscientific thinking behind a lot of the American opposition to same-sex marriage," - Bill Eskridge and Darren Spedale, over on Marriage Debate.Their new and meticulously researched book, from Oxford University Press, can be found here. It's a very thorough and scholarly account of the experience of same-sex legal partnerships in Scandinavia. If you need a respite from hysteria and ideology, it's a good place to start.