This international conference aims to shed light on the past and present struggle for human rights and against discrimination that has become synonymous with the term gay marriage. Experts from Germany, Belgium, France, Canada, and the US will place the current debate surrounding civil partnernship and gay marriage into the context of various rights struggles throughout the 20th century and will explain the European diffusion of same-sex union laws and the globalization of same-sex marriage claims as well as highlight the stakes involved in bringing the institutional and legal history of marriage in the United States to bear on same-sex couples' marriage rights today. The conference aims to draw attention to the wide spectrum of political and societal forces at work in the process of achieving legal and actual equality, and the challenges that continue to exist in the form of prejudices, hate crimes, and gay bashing.