State-level marriage equality and the health of same-sex couples.

OBJECTIVES: We assessed the association between the health of people in same-sex relationships and the degree and nature of the legal recognition of same-sex relationships offered in the states in which they resided. METHODS: We conducted secondary data analyses on the 2010 to 2013 Current Population Survey and publicly available data from Freedom to Marry, Inc. We estimated ordered logistic regression models in a 4-level framework to assess the impact of states' legal stances toward same-sex marriage on self-assessed health. RESULTS: Our findings indicated, relative to states with antigay constitutional amendments, that same-sex couples living in states with legally sanctioned marriage reported higher levels of self-assessed health. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that full legal recognition of same-sex relationships through marriage might be an important legal and policy strategy for improving the health of same-sex couples.

The language of (in)visibility: using in-between spaces as a vehicle for empowerment in the family.

Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with sexually nonconforming Latinas, this work looks at how these women negotiate family and achieve empowerment both through visibility and invisibility. This work explores the experiences of Latinas who verbally articulated their sexual nonconformity to their families as well as those who chose to maintain their relationships tacit. I offer that study participants found empowerment and agency not only through verbal articulation but also through tacit relationships and that sexually nonconforming Latinas inhabited an "in-between space" with their families that gave them the flexibility to pursue or not pursue visibility as they desired.