7 Ways the U.S.A. Benefs From the Legalizatn of Gay Marriage | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• US SUPREME COURT L GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL NATNWI
• FACTBOX: LIST OF STAT THAT LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE
• 7 WAYS THE U.S.A. BENEFS FROM THE LEGALIZATN OF GAY MARRIAGE
• SUPREME COURT LEGALIZ GAY MARRIAGE NATNWI

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

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 Mnota.Clerk Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn.

US SUPREME COURT L GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL NATNWI

Supreme Court 1972 cled to hear the se “for want of a substantial feral qutn.” 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 legal.In 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.Marriage Equaly: Turng the Ti In the late 1980s and early 1990s, same-sex upl saw the first signs of hope on the marriage ont a long time. 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 benefs.Three years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. Ernment.Then, 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 legal.The 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 su.As 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 years.The Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch.

FACTBOX: LIST OF STAT THAT LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE

Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to law.DOMA 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 thgs.The act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. In 1998, voters approved a nstutnal amendment banng same-sex marriage the state.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 marriage.Three 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, 2004.Later that year, the U.S. 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.

Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay marriage.But 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 issue.The 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 California.The 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 2012.Same-sex marriage also beme a feral issue aga.In 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.

7 WAYS THE U.S.A. BENEFS FROM THE LEGALIZATN OF GAY MARRIAGE

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 2015.By 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. 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.

Philanthropist and Democratic donor David Boht, who has been an outspoken gay- and transgenr-rights activist and longtime supporter of Bin, told CNN that Tuday’s bill signg uld not e at a more ccial moment.

SUPREME COURT LEGALIZ GAY MARRIAGE NATNWI

“[Bin] has monstrated his support for s for lbian and gay civil rights, and Tuday’s signg to law is a reaffirmatn of that durg this time when rights are unr asslt, ” Boht said. US public opn had shifted signifintly over the years, om 27% approval of gay marriage 1996 to 55% 2015, the year beme legal throughout the Uned Stat, to 61% 2019. Proponents of legal gay marriage ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, and that same-sex upl should have accs to all the benefs enjoyed by different-sex upl.

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 study found that same-sex married upl were “signifintly ls distrsed than lbian, gay, and bisexual persons not a legally regnized relatnship.

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. In July 2012 New York Cy Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that gay marriage had ntributed $259 ln to the cy’s enomy jt a year sce the practice beme legal there July 2011. 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.