Maggie Gallagher is president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (www.iMAPP.org), whose motto is “strengthening marriage for a new generation” and whose unique mission is research and public education on ways that law and public policy can strengthen marriage as a social institution.
Maggie is a nationally syndicated columnist, the author of three books on marriage (including most recently with University of Chicago Prof Linda Waite The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better-Off Financially), and a leading voice of the new marriage movement. National Journal named her to the 2004 list of the most influential people in the same-sex marriage debate.
She appears frequently on major TV and radio and is frequently asked to lecture at colleges, universities and law schools. She has testified as an expert witness on marriage before the U.S. Senate and in various state legislatures. Her writings on marriage have appeared in The New York Times, The Weekly Standard, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as scholarly journals such as the Louisiana Law Review, and the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy.
Speaking Topics
The Case for Marriage: a large body of social science data now confirms that not only is marriage good for children, its good for adults too. Both men and women who marry live longer, happier, healthier, and wealthier lives. Marriage changes people’s lives for the better in ways that cohabitation just can match. What is the secret ingredient that turns “a piece of paper” into a recipe for a better, happier, life?
The Case against Same-Sex Marriage: How will same-sex marriage harm marriage as a social institution? Maggie Gallagher, drawing on her expertise in the social science evidence on marriage, makes the case that marriage as the union of husband and wife is integrally related to important public and social goods. In striking contrast to many on the left and the right, Maggie argues that at its core the same-sex marriage debate is not a debate about homosexuality but about the meaning and purpose of marriage in the modern world.
