Gay Marriage Essay - 1,431 words

Gay Marriage The appearance of marriage between same-sex couples provoked one of the major cultural and social changes of the
twentieth century in the United States. In 1970 gay and lesbian couples inquired numerous marriage licenses from the Los Angeles
County Clerk. As a result the Clerks office proposed the California legislature to tighten California marriage laws. Despite the
promising start, and the aggressive efforts of gay and lesbian supporters and activists, for almost twenty years issue of homosexual
marriage disappeared from the courts, the state and national legislatures, the mass media, and American community itself. In 1971,
Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell began the first case of same-sex marriage in the court of Minnesota. Having
argued their constitutional rights, they cited recent anti-miscegenation laws in support of their plea, however, the court overruled all
the claims. The first lesbian case, Jones v.

Hallahan, was registered in Kentucky in 1973. Similarly to prior litigation, the case was lost on the basis of falling outside the
dictionary formulating of marriage. During the 1970s, numerous court cases were lost, however a few small victories were gained,
such as a marriage license granted to a gay couple in Boulder, Colorado, which subsequently encouraged gay and lesbian couples to
apply successfully for marriage licenses. However, the decision was later abolished by the Attorney General and all licenses were
recalled. As a reaction to those events, in 1975 the Arizona legislature passed an emergency bill defining marriage as only being
possible between a man and a woman, setting up a precedent for other state legislatures. The period from the 1970s till the mid-1980
was marked by the radical lesbian-feminism and AIDS concerns, which dominated political energy and time within the lesbian and
gay communities.

The radical lesbian-feminist theory argued against the institution of marriage in general, therefore many lesbians questioned the
focus on lesbian and gay marriage rights. Important issue of the AIDS epidemic dominated peoples lives, making lesser issues of
marriage rights to become secondary. However, many contemporary sociologists indicate that both the lesbian-feminist movement
and AIDS activism may have provoked the issue of same-sex marriages by encouraging more people to come out. The feminist
movement initialized the passing of Equal Rights Amendments, which subsequently had a great effect on a famous same-sex
marriage case in Hawaii in the 1990s, where the state ERA was utilized as basic argument for legalizing such marriages. In 1986, the
American Civil Liberties Union declared about its intentions to eliminate legal barriers preventing lesbians and gays from marrying.
Later on, the San Francisco Bar Association called for gay and lesbian marriages, while Chicago journalists filed complaints with the
Illinois Department of Human Rights, accusing the state of sex discrimination. By the 1990s, many organizations were trying to
initiate and support the passing of pro-marriage bills; simultaneously court cases continued, along with the filing of discrimination
complaints with Human Rights Commissions. The issue started gaining an impulse in the general public and, in 1989, a Time
magazine poll indicated 69 percent disapproval, 23 percent approval, and eight percent unsure on the issue of legalizing same-sex
marriages.

Three years later, in a 1992 Newsweek survey the data reported 58 percent against, 35 percent for, and seven percent unsure. In
most contemporary surveys, between 30 and 35 percent support gay marriage, and around 60 to 65 percent are opposed. The most
peculiar court case, which considerably impacted on the progress of same-sex marriage, was Baehr v. Lewin, heard in Hawaii in
1991. Three same-sex couples pleaded the state of Hawaii for refusing to issue marriage licenses, referring to the fact of Equal
Rights Amendment violation, which barred discrimination on the basis of sex. May 1993, for the first time in U.S. legal history, the
Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in favor of lesbian and gay marriage, however, in 1996 Circuit Judge Kevin Chang ruled against the
state of Hawaii on almost all counts, declaring that the state could not deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples and ordering the
state to pay the plaintiffs litigation costs. Anti-gay supporters and political leaders were afraid that lesbians and gays would flock to
Hawaii to marry; therefore they continuously worked to change the constitutional mandate introducing an interstate recognition of
marriage, according to which each st
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

Continue READING the FULL Essay by clicking HERE

Essay Tags: gay marriage, same-sex marriage, lesbian, court case, same-sex couples This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for
your research of: Gay Marriage