This book shows six different realities of same-sex families.  They range from full recognition of same-sex marriage to full invisibility of gay and lesbian individuals and their families.  The broad spectrum of experiences presented in this book share some commonalities: in all of them legal scholars and civil society are moving legal boundaries or thinking of spaces within rigid legal systems for same-sex families to function.  In all of them there have been legal claims to recognize the existence of same-sex families.  The difference between them lies in the response of courts.  Regardless of the type of legal system, when courts have viewed claims of same-sex couples and their families as problems of individual rights, they have responded with a constitutional narrative protecting same-sex couples and their families.  When courts respond to these claims with rigid concepts of what a family is and what marriage is as if legal concepts where unmodifiable, same-sex couples have remained outside the protection of the law.