Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-268) and index.

Who decides? Marriage law, the state, and mutual consent -- Is the spirit gendered? Fluid gender, sex-change, and same-sex marriage -- "Immortal longings": love-death, rebirth, and union through life after life -- A second self: traditions of romantic friendship -- Monstrous to miraculous: same-sex reproduction and parenting -- All in the family: same-sex relationships in traditional families -- "Married among their companions": female-female relations in pre-modern erotica -- Aspiring to union: twentieth-century cinema.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2009. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.