As an English teacher, maybe I see things from a slightly skewed perspective... but it seems to me that novels have sometimes had an amazing impact on American politics since the US was founded. From Abraham Lincoln joking that Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in itself started the Civil War, to ... (er, sorry, taught 6 straight hours today and am a little brain-dead, but you get what I mean... Richard Wright, Theodore Dreiser, Harper Lee, or even Anne Rand :( ).

Are there any novels (or memoirs, or even decent journalistic pieces) about the trials and tribulations of a gay or lesbian couple trying to get married in the US?

(Or, particularly for all you straight people out there, ANY novel about gays that changed the way you think about human rights?)