Watch the vio above for Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric’s terview wh Jim Obergefell, the platiff at the heart of the landmark Supreme Court se that today ma gay marriage legal the Uned Stat. The Supreme Court has found a nstutnal right to same-sex marriage, strikg down bans 14 stat and handg a historic victory to the gay rights movement that would have been unthkable jt 10 years ago. Anthony Kennedy, a nservative jtice who has broken wh his iologil lleagu to thor several cisns expandg rights for LGBT people, aga sid wh the urt’s four liberals to strike down the state bans. “It would misunrstand the men and women to say they disrpect the ia of marriage,” Kennedy wrote of same-sex upl. “Their plea is that they do rpect , rpect so eply that they seek to fd s fulfillment for themselv.” “They ask for equal digny the ey of the law,” he ntued. “The Constutn grants them that right.” The Uned Stat is now jt the 21st untry the world to allow same-sex marriage every jurisdictn. Print Barack Obama, rpondg publicly at the Whe Hoe to Supreme Court cisns for the send nsecutive day, herald the landmark cisn, statg that jtic fively “reaffirmed that all Amerins are entled to equal protectn unr the law.” “Our natn was found on a bedrock prciple that we are all created equal.
Contents:
- GAY MARRIAGE
- SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
- ULC TO HOST GAY WEDDG EVENT - UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH
- SUPREME COURT FDS UNIVERSAL RIGHT TO GAY MARRIAGE
- ULC MISTERS CAN PERFORM GAY WEDDGS
- GAY WEDDGS - ULC BLOG
- GAY RIGHTS
- WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET
GAY MARRIAGE
The road to full marriage equaly for same-sex upl the Uned Stat was paved wh setbacks and victori. The landmark 2015 Supreme Court se Obergefell v. Hodg ma gay marriage legal throughout the untry. * universal gay marriage *
Scholars and the general public beme creasgly terted the issue durg the late 20th century, a perd when attus toward homosexualy and laws regulatg homosexual behavur were liberalized, particularly wtern Europe and the Uned issue of same-sex marriage equently sparked emotnal and polil clash between supporters and opponents. In other s, the cultural homogeney supported by the domant relign did not rult the applitn of doctre to the civic realm but may nohels have fostered a smoother seri of discsns among the cizenry: Belgium and Spa had legalized same-sex marriage, for stance, spe official opposn om their predomant relig stutn, the Roman Catholic Church. Most of the world religns have at some pots their histori opposed same-sex marriage for one or more of the followg stated reasons: homosexual acts vlate natural law or dive tentns and are therefore immoral; passag sacred texts nmn homosexual acts; and relig tradn regniz only the marriage of one man and one woman as valid.
Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn. ” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups.
Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years. In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch.
SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
Sort through the more than 30 jurisdictns that have enacted laws allowg gays and lbians to marry. * universal gay marriage *
That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v. Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay towards the end of the , gay marriage beme legal var stat, cludg Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (the first state to approve by legislative means) and New Hampshire.
Domtic Partnerships Throughout the and the begng of the next, California equently ma headl for seawg on the gay marriage state was the first to pass a domtic partnership statute 1999, and legislators tried to pass a same-sex marriage bill 2005 and 2007. For the first time the untry’s history, voters (rather than judg or legislators) Mae, Maryland, and Washgton approved Constutnal amendments permtg same-sex marriage marriage also beme a feral issue 2010, Massachetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, found Sectn 3 of DOMA—the part of the 1996 law that fed marriage as a unn between one man and one woman—to be unnstutnal. Wdsor, nservative Jtice Anthony Kennedy sid wh Jtic Ruth Bar Gsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan favor of same-sex marriage rights, ultimately makg gay marriage legal across the natn June this time, was still outlawed only 13 stat, and more than 20 other untri had already legalized gay marriage, startg wh the Netherlands December 2000.
ULC TO HOST GAY WEDDG EVENT - UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH
Proponents ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, opponents ague that marriage is primarily for procreatn. * universal gay marriage *
Netherlands2001EuropeFirst untry to legalize same-sex marriage after Parliament passed the law December Zealand 2013Asia-PacificFirst untry the Asia-Pacific regn to allow gays and lbians to 2009EuropeThe law replaced a 1993 statute permtg civil unns.
Slovenia 2022EuropeFirst untry formerly munist Eastern Europe to legalize same-sex Ai 2006Sub-Saharan AiOnly Ain untry where same-sex marriage is legal; several untri on the ntent have passed laws that ban homosexualy recent 2005EuropeBeme the third untry globally to legalize same-sex marriage after a vote s closely divid 2009EuropeGay and lbian upl Swen prevly had been allowed to register for civil unns sce 1995. 1%) st ballots favor of legalizg same-sex marriage a 2021 2019Asia-PacificA urt lg prompted a change the law that ma Taiwan the first jurisdictn Asia to perm gays and lbians to Kgdom 2014EuropeLegal same-sex marriage took effect Northern Ireland 2020, six years after the change England and Wal.
SUPREME COURT FDS UNIVERSAL RIGHT TO GAY MARRIAGE
* universal gay marriage *
On July 25, 2014 Miami-Da County Circu Court Judge Sarah Zabel led Florida’s gay marriage ban unnstutnal and stated that the ban “serv only to hurt, to discrimate, to prive same-sex upl and their fai of equal digny, to label and treat them as send-class cizens, and to em them unworthy of participatn one of the fundamental stutns of our society. The Amerin Psychologil Associatn, Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, and others nclud that legal gay marriage giv upl “accs to the social support that already facilat and strengthens heterosexual marriag, wh all of the psychologil and physil health benefs associated wh that support. A 2010 analysis found that after their stat had banned gay marriage, gay, lbian and bisexual people suffered a 37% crease mood disorrs, a 42% crease alhol-e disorrs, and a 248% crease generalized anxiety disorrs.
ULC MISTERS CAN PERFORM GAY WEDDGS
A historic day for the gay muny means more work for ULC misters. We at ULC support marriage equaly and enurage our misters to perform gay weddgs. * universal gay marriage *
In 2012, the Williams Instute at the Universy of California at Los Angel (UCLA) found that the first five years after Massachetts legalized gay marriage 2004, same-sex weddg expendur (such as venue rental, weddg k, etc. 2016 printial ndidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fra stated that civil unns are aquate as an equivalent to marriage: “Benefs are beg btowed to gay upl [ civil unns]… I believe we need to rpect those who believe that the word marriage has a spirual foundatn… Why n’t we rpect and tolerate that while at the same time sayg ernment nnot btow benefs unequally. Court papers filed July 2014 by attorneys fendg Arizona’s gay marriage ban stated that “the State regulat marriage for the primary purpose of channelg potentially procreative sexual relatnships to endurg unns for the sake of jog children to both their mother and their father… Same-sex upl n never provi a child wh both her blogil mother and her blogil father.
GAY WEDDGS - ULC BLOG
View ULC's Gay Weddgs blog posts. * universal gay marriage *
Lee Badgett, PhD, Director of the Center for Public Policy and Admistratn at the Universy of Massachetts at Amherst, stated that for many gay activists “marriage means adoptg heterosexual forms of fay and givg up distctively gay fay forms and perhaps even gay and lbian culture. Pla Ettelbrick, JD, Profsor of Law and Women’s Studi, wrote 1989, “Marriage ns ntrary to two of the primary goals of the lbian and gay movement: the affirmatn of gay inty and culture and the validatn of many forms of relatnships.
Queer activist Anrs Zanichkowsky stated June 2013 that the then mpaign for gay marriage “tentnally and malicly eras and exclus so many queer people and cultur, particularly trans and genr non-nformg people, poor queer people, and queer people non-tradnal fai… marriage thks non-married people are viant and not tly servg of civil rights.
In Islamic tradn, several hadhs (passag attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) nmn gay and lbian relatnships, cludg the saygs “When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shak, ” and “Sihaq [lbian sex] of women is za [illegimate sexual terurse].
GAY RIGHTS
The Unarian Universalist Associatn has supported full equaly for gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people sce 1970 and markets self to the LGBTQ muny as an clive relign. * universal gay marriage *
Matt Barber, Associate Dean for Onle Programs at Liberty Universy School of Law, stated, “Every dividual engaged the homosexual liftyle, who has adopted a homosexual inty, they know, tuively, that what they’re dog is immoral, unnatural, and self-stctive, yet they thirst for that affirmatn. A 2003 set of guil signed by Pope John Pl II stated: “There are absolutely no grounds for nsirg homosexual unns to be any way siar or even remotely analogo to God’s plan for marriage and fay… Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go agast the natural moral law.
Marriage equaly is only one step on the path to havg gay Amerins be pletely equal to their heterosexual unterparts, but is a profoundly emotnal one that will boost the morale of our untry's LGBT muny once is acplished.
Watch the vio above for Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric’s terview wh Jim Obergefell, the platiff at the heart of the landmark Supreme Court se that today ma gay marriage legal the Uned Supreme Court has found a nstutnal right to same-sex marriage, strikg down bans 14 stat and handg a historic victory to the gay rights movement that would have been unthkable jt 10 years ago.
WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET
The bans on gay marriage 13 stat across Ameri have been led unnstutnal. * universal gay marriage *
(Photo: Jim Lo Slzo/EPA)Obama, who did not publicly support marriage equaly when he first ran for the Whe Hoe 2008, touted his endorsement for same-sex marriage his send mpaign as well as the admistratn’s repeal of the ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy 2011 as markers of progrs for gay rights unr his Jtice John Roberts read a stgg dissent om the bench as Kennedy sat bi him, his hand on his ch.
In his majory opn, which surely will cement his reputatn as a champn for gay rights, Kennedy wr of the “urgency” of gay upl’ claims, and nclus is wrong to allow them to be discrimated agast any ’s clear the urt is eply divid over the cisn. Public opn on gay marriage has changed at lightng speed as well: 60 percent of Amerins support , pared wh jt 37 percent 10 years transformative opn will most likely ntue the trend toward greater acceptance of LGBT people around the untry, as the hight urt of the land has led that same-sex unns are legimate and lawful everywhere. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Rters) Even wh the landmark cisn, however, support for gay marriage has been almost nonexistent among elected Republin officials, whose posns on the issue likely will not change overnight.
) Some stat will most likely rpond to this lg by attemptg to pass legislatn to exempt people who oppose same-sex marriage on relig grounds, such as the ntroversial Indiana law that passed gay rights movement, meanwhile, will move on to employment discrimatn. In addn to Mae, Maryland, and Washgton, people who have been ordaed by the Universal Life Church are also able to perform gay weddgs the other six stat where they have been legalized; the clu Connecticut, Iowa, Massachetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. This is largely due to the fact that ULC misters generally have liberal, non-tradnal views on relign and therefore do not buy to the bible-based reasong that prevents the preachers of many Christian church om performg gay weddgs.