Same-sex marriage

Introduction

Same-sex marriage permits couples of the same gender to enter legally-recognized marriages and provides them with the same legal rights as couples in heterosexual marriages. Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden. In the United States as of 2010, same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Vermont as well as in the District of Columbia.

As Opponents of same-sex marriage what I believe that the institution of marriage should apply only to unions between one man and one woman. Allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, they say, undermines the institution of marriage itself. Some who object to same-sex marriage support the idea of civil unions, rather than fullmarriage, for same-sex couples. As advocates say that such unions are not fully equivalent to marriage and deprive same-sex couples of equal rights.

Legislative History

In the United States, marriage laws are enacted by the individual states, not by the federal government. In my opinion what I think that the major issue of this problem is the legalization of se x marriage. Yet the federal government has intervened where it has determined that constitutional rights have been violated. The argument thatsame-sex couples should have the right to marry can be traced to the civil rights movement, which supported efforts to repeal state miscegenation laws that forbade interracial marriages. In 1942, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Skinner v. Oklahomathat marriage is "one of the basic civil rights." Loving v. Virginia, decided by the Supreme Court in 1967, ended race discrimination in marriage also affirmed: "The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men." These decisions paved the way for same-sex couples to demand equal marriage rights. Beginning in the early 1970s, individual gay and lesbian couples applied for marriage licenses in various states, but these efforts did not succeed. Though some couples sued, the lawsuits were also rejected.

The tide began to turn in 1993, when three same-sex couples in Hawaii sued the state for marriage licenses. The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the state was required to demonstrate sufficient reason for denying the licenses, or stop discriminating. In a 1996 trial decision, Judge Kevin Chang ruled that there is no good reason to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Despite this clear ruling to end discrimination in marriage, Hawaii amended its constitution to block same-sexmarriages (Lewin, 45).

Ups and Downs

Events in California illustrate the deep divisions between supporters and opponents of gay marriage, and between government and voters. In 2005, the California legislature became the first in the United States to pass a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. The case went to the California Supreme Court, which ruled in 2008 that "limiting the designation of marriage to a union 'between a man and a woman' is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute," and that marriage must be made equally available ...