7 openly gay lears have served as heads of state. Latvian print Edgars Rkēvičs is the latt

Contents:

• HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE
• 2011: A GOOD YEAR TO BE GAY
• GAY RIGHTS
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• GAY MARRIAGE: PROS, CONS, AND WHERE BOTH PARTI STAND
• RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE

By one vote, the urt l that same-sex marriage nnot be banned the Uned Stat and that all same-sex marriag mt be regnized natnwi, fally grantg same-sex upl equal rights to heterosexual upl unr the 1971, jt two years after the Stonewall Rts that unofficially marked the begng of the stggle for gay rights and marriage equaly, the Mnota Supreme Court had found same-sex marriage bans nstutnal, a precent which the Supreme Court had never challenged. As homosexualy gradually beme more accepted Amerin culture, the nservative backlash was strong enough to force Print Bill Clton to sign the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), prohibg the regnn of same-sex marriag at the feral level, to law 1996.

On May 9, 2012, Print Obama beme the first stg US print to clare his support for gay marriage, statg: “At a certa pot, I’ve jt nclud that for me personally is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I thk same-sex upl should be able to get married. Six other stat which gay marriage bans had been overturned, Colorado, Kansas, North Carola, South Carola, Wt Virgia, and Wyomg, were also affected by the Supreme Court lg bee they were the jurisdictns of the lower urts that had overturned the gay marriage bans.

They clud Judh Kasen-Wdsor, widow of gay rights activist Edie Wdsor; Matthew Hayn, -owner of Club Q, the LGBTQ club Colorado Sprgs where a gunman last month killed five people a mass shootg; Club Q shootg survivors Jam Slgh and Michael Anrson; and a number of platiffs om s that culmated the landmark civil rights se Obergefell vs. In 2009, a Marriage Equaly Bill had passed the New York Assembly, but fell short the 2011, galvanized by those loss, gay-rights activists at the Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equaly New York and New York Pri Agenda doubled down, blanketg the state wh operativ to drive home marriage equaly through postrds, lls and emails and 150, 000 nstuent ntacts wh their the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 cisn Obergefell v. Bely was behd bar, “probably mixg Cosmos, ” at Brandy’s Piano Bar on the Upper East Si when "every gay person sudnly packed to this bar and there was a feelg of like the war had end or somethg, like you wanted to see a sailor wh the girl Tim Square.

2011: A GOOD YEAR TO BE GAY

After s which gay rights have polarised US opn, the untry barely shgged September when a two- old law prohibg gay men and women om servg openly the ary was fally repealed, promptg thoands of gay soldiers to post g-out vios on YouTube – jt one more example of how the web has transformed gay visibily.

To put that ntext, there are more people livg New York than the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalise same-sex stggle for marriage equaly has been one of the most bterly divisive issu Ameri, but after a seri of feats for gay-rights advot, the ti appears to be shiftg irrevobly their directn.

In the 2004 electn, unr the keen enuragement of Karl Rove, no fewer than 11 stat passed ballot iativ banng gay marriage — a cynil get-out-the-vote ploy that helped swell Republin ranks at the pollg perceptn that marriage equaly was a poisoned pk chalice persisted up to the 2008 electn, when even Obama was reful to clarify that he wasn't favour of gay marriage, apparently heedg warngs om Bill Clton to give the issue a wi berth. This was a quantum leap on 1990s shows such as Will & Grace, which the gay characters had the whiff of "nfirmed bachelors", to e the archaic phemism of obuary wrers, rarely prented functng relatnships, much ls young gay men and women today the ia that they will be able to marry and raise kids no longer sounds outlandish or ntroversial. Most of all, they munite wh a diverse group of iends on Twter and Facebook, where gay and straight teens revel their shared cultural is all a long way om the wdowls gay bar wh the peephole the door Edburgh, where I first learned to socialise wh other gay people durg my first tentative steps out of the closet.

GAY RIGHTS

A year later, when I beme edor of Out, seemed pertent to ask what functn a gay magaze would serve a world that, if not yet post-gay, seemed to be headg that Europe, many of the old prejudic were rapidly fallg away as one untry after another extend equal rights to their gay cizens.

The popular belief that people are now ee to e out at a younger age was challenged by a major study last year, The 2010 State of Higher Edutn for LGBT People, which found that some stunts were actively gog back to the closet at llege bee of fear of retaliatn for beg gay. And while the ter has enabled young gay men and women to nnect as never before, offerg affirmatn and support at the click of a moe, the web has also given rise to new forms of harassment and yet, as more gays e out, has bee harr for their iends, fai and acquatanc to stand the way of their basic rights. In September, the mpaign for marriage equaly found support om an unual quarter when former vice print Dick Cheney, whose dghter is a lbian, appeared on a popular daytime show to announce his support for gay unns, addg the da that "Freedom means eedom for everybody.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

Realy TV, for all s qutnable ethics, has brought real gay people to the livg rooms of Ameri; 2009, the most popular of those shows, Simon Cowell's Amerin Idol, was seen as a bellwether of changg attus as a young gay nttant, Adam Lambert, eyeler and glter, advanced to the fal. Lambert's flamboyance nflicted wh the show's notor reluctance to field openly gay nttants: he seemed to be tellg he was gay whout spellg out (until after the fale), and the subsequent nversatn the media, and onle, showed how far we had was also a remr of how cril popular entertament has been challengg attus, and remas the sgle most pellg argument for the annual Out 100, a photo portfol of 100 gay men, women and transgenr people om all walks of life who live their liv openly and whout promise. The androgyno Atralian mol, Andrej Pejic, who met the Queen October wearg a vtage Versace pencil skirt is as much part of the unfoldg gay narrative as the social secretary of the Whe Hoe (and first gay man to hold the posn), or Gareth Thomas, one of the most pped Welsh gby unn players history.

Supreme Court agreed to review a number of feral appeals urt cisns on same-sex marriage: one strikg down part of the feral Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which f marriage as a unn between a man and a woman, and another validatg California’s Proposn 8, a ballot measure passed 2008 that amend the state’s nstutn to ban gay marriage. Between the pol, a fierce battle is takg place ptg those who hope all gays and lbians, regardls of where they live, will soon have the right to marry agast those who believe that same-sex marriage is helpg to unrme heterosexual marriage, which they see as the foundatn of healthy fai.

GAY MARRIAGE: PROS, CONS, AND WHERE BOTH PARTI STAND

While all laws legalizg same-sex marriage nta some nscience protectns allowg church and other relig groups to refe to marry gay and lbian upl, the legal ground is murkier for religly affiliated anizatns, such as hospals, schools and other social-service provirs, that may not want to grant benefs to the spoe of an employee a same-sex marriage or provi adoptn and other servic to a gay or lbian uple that are routely provid to heterosexual upl.

Ined, the ordatn and marriage of gay persons has been a growg wedge between the socially liberal and nservative wgs of the Epispal, Lutheran and Prbyterian church, leadg some nservative ngregatns – and even whole dc – to break away om their natnal church as they bee more open to gay clergy and gay marriage. The spark that started the bate occurred Hawaii 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court led that an existg law banng same-sex marriage would be unnstutnal unls the state ernment uld show that had a pellg reason for discrimatg agast gay and lbian upl.

Even though this cisn did not immediately lead to the legalizatn of gay marriage that state (the se was sent back to a lower urt for further nsiratn and Hawaiian voters ultimately approved a referendum leavg the issue the hands of the state’s legislature), did spark a natnwi backlash. While battl have been ragg many stat over whether to accept or ban same-sex marriage, a number of stat have enacted laws that tablish civil unns or domtic partnerships, both of which aim to give gay and lbian upl many or most of the rights and rponsibili of matrimony whout actually grantg them the right to wed. Nathaniel Brooks for The New York TimJune 24, 2011ALBANY — Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, makg New York the largt state where gay and lbian upl will be able to wed and givg the natnal gay-rights movement new momentum om the state where was marriage bill, whose fate was uncerta until moments before the vote, was approved 33 to 29 a packed but hhed Senate chamber.

RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York TimThe approval of same-sex marriage reprented a reversal of fortune for gay-rights advot, who jt two years ago suffered a huiatg feat when a same-sex marriage bill was easily rejected by the Senate, which was then ntrolled by Democrats.

Cuomo, a Democrat who pledged last year to support same-sex marriage but whose early months office were domated by tense battl wh lawmakers and some labor unns over spendg Cuomo ma same-sex marriage one of his top prri for the year and ployed his top ai to ordate the efforts of a half-dozen lol gay-rights anizatns whose fdg and disanizatn had part been blamed for the feat two years new aln of same-sex marriage supporters brought one of Mr. VioMore than 1, 000 supporters of same-sex marriage gathered at the Stonewall Inn, a birthplace of the gay rights movement New York's Wt Village neighborhood, to celebrate the bill's Senate Republins, even brgg the measure to the floor was a eighted cisn.

Díaz legalizatn of same-sex marriage the Uned Stat is a relatively recent goal of the gay-rights movement, but over the last few years, gay-rights anizers have placed at the center of their agenda, steerg money and mcle to dozens of state pals an often uphill effort to persua New York, passage of the bill reflects rapidly evolvg sentiment about same-sex unns. Many of them were approved the past few years, as same-sex marriage moved to the ont le of the culture war and policians ployed the issue as a tool for energizg their New York uld be a shift: It is now by far the largt state to grant legal regnn to same-sex weddgs, and one that is home to a large, visible and polilly fluential gay muny.

Supporters of the measure scribed the victory New York as pecially symbolic — and poignant — bee of s rich place the history of gay rights: the movement’s foundatnal moment, June 1969, was a rt agast police at the Stonewall Inn, a bar the Wt Albany, there was elatn after the vote.