This article analyz the evolutn of gay and lbian rights and same-sex marriage Amerin public opn. It scrib how Obergefell v. Hodg, state-level cisns and the public opn trends n be nsired as the oute of a grassroots ordated mpaign which began more than a ago and was able to nquer the majory of Amerins. It also foc on the Amerin public opn trends related to moral issu, examg if is te that U.S. cizens are movg leftward. The rearch shows that the shift toward more liberal attus on a number of social valu and issu has occurred across the age spectm, not jt among young people, and that when Amerins are asked about moral valu they are thkg of thgs other than jt the norms surroundg sexual behavr and reproductn issu. Th, when Amerins are largely sayg that the overall moral tone of their culture is bad shape and gettg worse, they are only margally thkg of former taboos such as gay and lbian marriage and sexual behavrs general.
Contents:
- GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
- GAY MARRIAGE
- MORALY OR EQUALY? IOLOGIL AMG NEWS VERAGE OF GAY MARRIAGE LEGIMIZATN
- GAY MARRIAGE AND ETHIL THEORI
- GAY MARRIAGE AND THE MORALY OF ALL
- WING THE CIRCLE OF HUMAN OBLIGATN: MORALY, HYPOCRISY, AND GAY MARRIAGE
- 1. THE SUPREME COURT CISN, THE OPN POLLS AND THE PUBLIC PERCEPTN ON GAY AND LBIAN RIGHTS THE U.S.
GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
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. * morality of gay marriage *
What has grown is a much greater acceptance of gays and lbians our culture, as well as the social and enomic eedom for gays and lbians to emerge om the closet that has nfed them for so many generatns.
GAY MARRIAGE
Dpe beg supported by some ethil theori, gay marriag are not good for the marriage stutn and should not be supported. * morality of gay marriage *
The recent addn of same sex mment ceremoni the Sunday New York Tim weddg and engagement announcements and the populary of shows as "Will and Grace" and "Queer Eye…" dite a shift our culture's attu toward gays and lbians. My tent was two-fold: first to ve stunts to dialogue wh people different om themselv; send, to work to elimate, whatever small way I uld, homophobic attus on our mp and our muny. My purpose today is not to support or fend gay and lbian marriag—ed, many gays and lbians do not want to marry—but simply suggt a theologil approach that might open up the possibily for greater Christian acceptance of, and eccliastil approval for, same sex unns.
Catholic sistence: one n uphold the digny of homosexual people while not upholdg their right-to-marry; no unjt discrimatn towards homosexuals is acceptable; they mt be treated wh rpect, and their rights fend.
MORALY OR EQUALY? IOLOGIL AMG NEWS VERAGE OF GAY MARRIAGE LEGIMIZATN
The Natnal Relig Learship Roundtable, which supported the multi-fah event on the steps of the San Francis Cy Hall scribed above, is nvened by the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force.
Equal Employment Opportuny Commissn, se the movement for same-sex marriage an opportuny “to make the se for” the “normative moral equivalence” of “gay and heterosexual sex”—an argument, Profsor Feldblum observ, “that is hardly ever heard polil circl. Rutgers Law Profsor Carlos Ball believ that the stggle for “societal acceptance” of same-sex relatnships entails a “ontal attack” on the “eply held views of many Amerins regardg the (im)moraly of homosexualy.
[30] The thors, who clu Profsors Feldblum and Ball, believe that “current advot for gay rights are not really engagg their opponents unls they are engaged wh the moral nature of their opponents’ views and arguments. 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.
GAY MARRIAGE AND ETHIL THEORI
Relig and secular expectatns of marriage and sexualy Over time the historil and tradnal cultur origally rerd by the lik of Bachofen and Man slowly succumbed to the homogenizatn imposed by lonialism. 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.
GAY MARRIAGE AND THE MORALY OF ALL
” 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.
WING THE CIRCLE OF HUMAN OBLIGATN: MORALY, HYPOCRISY, AND GAY MARRIAGE
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.
1. THE SUPREME COURT CISN, THE OPN POLLS AND THE PUBLIC PERCEPTN ON GAY AND LBIAN RIGHTS THE U.S.
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 study ed the Massachetts legimizatn of gay marriage as a dividg pot to look at what kds of specific polil or social topics related to gay marriage were highlighted the news media.
Acrdg to Bent (1998), of the 356 news stori about gays and lbians that appeared Time and Newsweek om 1947 to 1997, the Ksey report on male sexualy published 1948 was the first to draw reporters to the subject of homosexualy. The reason for selectg the time perd was bee on November 18, 2003, the Massachetts monwealth officially thorized gay marriage, and that day was nsired a landmark day gay-rights history the Uned Stat. More specifilly, The New York Tim more strongly lked the issue of human equaly to the gay marriage issue, pecially before the Massachetts monwealth legimized the martial stat of gay and lbian upl.