A strong case for legalizing gay marriage

Jim de Seve’s “Tying the Knot” could scarcely be more timely, as it charts the same-sex marriage movement and its backlash. As some European countries, in addition to Canada, begin to open marriage to gay people, the U.S. seems ever more determined to prohibit it. It is a serious issue for gays, for whom no will, beneficiary document or city or state civil union protection guarantees the 1,138 federal rights the documentary asserts are granted straight married couples.

What gives this lively, incisive and comprehensive documentary its punch is that it sets its survey of the movement’s progress and setbacks against accounts of two people who lost their life partners and suffered dire economic consequences.

Well-liked and respected veteran Tampa, Fla., policewomen Mickie Mashburn and Lois Marrero had been a couple for a decade when Lois was killed in the line of duty. Despite the support of friends and colleagues, Mickie is denied death and pension benefits; Lois’ relatives, who gave their blessings to the women’s ceremonial declaration of their relationship a decade earlier, turn against Mickie. Two Tampa pension hearings, either out of cowardice or bias, or both, deny Mickie the benefits, for which Lois’ relatives have filed a claim.

Worse yet is the case of Sam, an Oklahoma rancher whose partner of 23 years, Earl, died, leaving him everything. But Earl had failed to get a third signature on his will, which allowed an estranged cousin to successfully contest the will, confiscate the ranch, force Sam to sell his horses -- and then charge Sam back rent.

A key aspect of the film is its historical survey of the institution of marriage provided by E.J. Graff, author of “What Is Marriage For?” who challenges the contention of social conservatives that marriage has always been an immutable institution. She points out that marriage was a secular institution in Europe until it was made a sacrament of the church in 1215. Even so, she shows that marriage was by necessity a business transaction, arrived at by couples who could either join common lands or labor.

Only with the Industrial Revolution, which opened the possibility of an individual supporting himself or herself, did people commence thinking about marrying for love rather than survival and security. De Seve interweaves Mickie and Sam’s ordeals and Graff’s perspectives with the events involved with the push for same-sex marriage across the nation and with archival footage, which include clips of gay activists taking over the Manhattan marriage bureau to protest the city clerk’s threat to sue Father Robert Clement for performing holy unions for same-sex couples in his church -- way back in 1971.

Amid the debate on both sides of the issue that De Seve diligently records, the droll remark of Kevin Bourassa, a Canadian gay activist celebrating his country’s legalizing of same-sex marriages, adds a common-sensical touch: “If you don’t like same-sex marriage, don’t have one.”

*

‘Tying the Knot’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Mature themes

A Roadside Attractions presentation. Director-cinematographer Jim de Seve. Producers De Seve, Stephen D. Pelletier, Kian Tjong. Editors De Seve, Constance Rodgers, Pelletier. Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes.

Exclusively at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500; and the Art Theater, 2025 E. 4th St., Long Beach, (562) 430-4718.