Expert on history of US marriage

June 26, 2015

The following University of Victoria faculty member is available to discuss the ruling (expected Thursday, Friday or Monday) by the US Supreme Court in a landmark case on marriage equality and the constitutionality of state bans on same-sex marriage.

Rachel Hope Cleves (Dept. of History) is an expert on the history of sexuality in North America, most especially LGBTQ history and the history of same-sex marriage from the colonial era to 1970. Her research, released this spring, reveals insights on 500 years of same-sex unions in the US. She is also the author of Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (Oxford University Press, 2014), which recounts the history of two Vermont women who lived together in a same-sex marriage in the 1800s.

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Media contact:
Tara Sharpe (University Communications + Marketing) at 250-721-7636 or tksharpe@uvic.ca