Gay Marriage

Men have paired up with men and women with women throughout history and around the globe seeking companionship, support and sometimes physical intimacy. These same-sex relationships have enjoyed some social acceptance. But in the West, religious authorities have condemned homosexual relationships since the Middle Ages. In the 1970s gay and lesbian couples began trying to legally marry, but courts reformed their efforts throughout the 1980s (Rutgers, 2005). However at the time marriage was not a high priority in the gay-rights movement. Opinions were divided about the importance of marriage and gay-rights advocates had more pressing issues such as job discrimination, anti-gay laws and AIDS.

Efforts to win legal recognition for same-sex marriages intensified during the 1990s, starting with favorable court rulings in Hawaii and Alaska. However those rulings were nullified by state constitutional amendments. And in further reaction to the Hawaii and Alaska cases, the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was overwhelmingly passed in 1996. DOMA provided that no state would be required to recognize a same-sex marriage from another state, and also defined marriage for federal-law purposes as opposite-sex. By the end of 2000, more than thirty states had passed their own "marriage protection acts" (Rutgers, 2005). In May 2004 Massachusetts became the first state in the United States where same-sex marriage is legal. A constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court's decision has been given approval, but it will not be voted on until November 2006. In November 2004, eleven U.S. states amended their constitutions to prohibit same-sex marriage. In June 2005, Canada's House of Commons approved legislation to extend same-sex marriage to the whole country, and same-sex marriage was also approved in Spain (CQ Researcher).