Lawyer Reflects On Natn's First Gay Marriag: 'The Cage Had Been Lifted' : NPR

Contents:

• MASSACHETTS’ GAY MARRIAGE BILL IS NOW LAW
• GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE MASSACHETTS
• MASSACHETTS GAY MARRIAGE TO REMA LEGAL
• 15 YEARS LATER, GAY UPLE RELLS THEIR ROLE MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC MARRIAGE LG
• TODAY IN HISTORY: 12 YEARS SCE MASSACHETTS BEME FIRST STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW DID GAY MARRIAGE HAPPEN MASSACHETTS FIRST?
• LAWYER REFLECTS ON NATN'S FIRST GAY MARRIAG: 'THE CAGE HAD BEEN LIFTED'
• REFLECTG ON MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC GAY RIGHTS LG, 15 YEARS LATER: ANALYSIS
• LAWYER REFLECTS ON NATN'S FIRST GAY MARRIAG: 'THE CAGE HAD BEEN LIFTED'
• MASSACHETTS GAY MARRIAGE TO REMA LEGAL

MASSACHETTS’ GAY MARRIAGE BILL IS NOW LAW

Massachetts' "gay marriage" cisn.

GAY MARRIAGE

Hog and mortgag for gay and lbian upl, Mortgage. How to get married Massachetts, Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs (GLAD), July 2015.

A legal gui for lbian and gay upl by Frerick Hertz, Nolo, 2020.

GAY MARRIAGE MASSACHETTS

Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr fay law, Thomson Rters, Annual.

Morn fai: effective advocy for lbian and gay clients, MCLE, 2013. The road to marriage equaly began April 2001 when Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs, a nonprof group of attorneys that works on LBGTQIA+ issu, started a su agast the Massachetts Department of Public Health on behalf of seven gay and lbian upl who had been nied marriage licens. Michelle Johnson and Myrna Greenfield joed dozens of other same-sex upl to be married the night gay marriage was legalized Massachetts.

The fact that they liv a state wh legalized gay marriage ma a difference. “I have been really pleasantly surprised at how differently people treat you when you're officially married and how eager and willg people have been to wele gay people to the fold,” said Myrna Greenfield, Johnson’s wife.

MASSACHETTS GAY MARRIAGE TO REMA LEGAL

Gay and lbian upl om outsi Massachetts are now ee to marry the Deval Patrick on Thursday signed a bill repealg a 1913 law that barred upl om marryg Massachetts if their unn would not be valid their own stat. Massachetts has allowed gay marriag sce 2004, but the move to repeal the law mak the state equal wh California, which recently beme the only other state to legalize gay marriage and has no rincy gay upl n marry as soon as Thursday, sce lawmakers clud a provisn to make the repeal go to effect Massachetts, there is a standard three-day wag perd after applyg for a license, but any uple n petn a urt for a waiver — somethg gay upl -state did by the hundreds when the first legal gay marriag the natn were performed May 2004. Opponents said repealg the law would make Massachetts the "Las Vegas of gay marriage" and would ge on other stat' rights to fe marriage.

15 YEARS LATER, GAY UPLE RELLS THEIR ROLE MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC MARRIAGE LG

A state study timat that more than 30, 000 out-of-state gay upl -- most of them om New York -- will wed Massachetts over the next three years. The form, ed sce October 2005, also asks where they currently live and plan to live once married, which has been the vehicle by which clerks have prevly been able to block out-of-state upl om obtag a marriage license is good anywhere Massachetts, so an out-of-state gay uple livg elsewhere New York or New England uld apply a borr muny and then marry anywhere the state.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 12 YEARS SCE MASSACHETTS BEME FIRST STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

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. Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs. 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.

HOW DID GAY MARRIAGE HAPPEN MASSACHETTS FIRST?

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. The state fally troduced the untry to gay marriage (m the feral benefs) when began issug same-sex marriage licens on May 17, that year, the U. Bh—that would outlaw gay marriage across the untry.

2004 was notable for upl many other stat as well, though for the oppose reason: Ten typilly nservative stat, along wh Oregon, enacted state-level bans on gay marriage.

LAWYER REFLECTS ON NATN'S FIRST GAY MARRIAG: 'THE CAGE HAD BEEN LIFTED'

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.

REFLECTG ON MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC GAY RIGHTS LG, 15 YEARS LATER: ANALYSIS

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. Perry legalized same-sex marriage early 2010s ntued the state-level battl over gay marriage that fed the precedg , wh at least one notable event. 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. The state's lg has brought the legal and polil bate over gay marriage to the natnal level..

LAWYER REFLECTS ON NATN'S FIRST GAY MARRIAG: 'THE CAGE HAD BEEN LIFTED'

I really thk at this pot that gay marriage is evable, that the legal arguments for this type of discrimatn are unstaable and you look no further than the U. Supreme Court, which ed very siar reasong strikg down the Texas sodomy laws, namely sayg that you nnot draw a distctn — the state is not a posn to draw a distctn between heterosexual and homosexual nduct as well as the rights and rponsibili they have.

MASSACHETTS GAY MARRIAGE TO REMA LEGAL

The dissenters I thought had a pretty good argument that — you read the dissents; you don't fd any argument, any cricism of gay relatnships. Michael Ryan, your paper, the Augta Chronicle, is firmly agast gay marriage even agast civil unns. Third uld ironilly hurt the gay e by attemptg to force on the public unwillg.

Dpe your opn on gay marriage, that should bother you. There is not even a parison to be ma between this strikg down of discrimatory laws banng terracial marriag and gay marriag. A recent one by the Pew Rearch Center says that nearly 60 percent of the rponnts that they talked to oppose gay marriage.