Should Gay Marriage Be Legal? 6 Pros and Cons

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE CLARED LEGAL ACROSS THE US HISTORIC SUPREME URT LG
• GAY MARRIAGE
• THE PRICE OF GAY MARRIAGE
• THE SUPREME COURT AND GAY MARRIAGE
• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• GAY MARRIAGE ARGUMENTS DIVI SUPREME COURT JTIC

GAY MARRIAGE CLARED LEGAL ACROSS THE US HISTORIC SUPREME URT LG

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPooja Mandagere, left, and Natalie Thompson outsi the Supreme Court on Friday after led favor of same-sex Mills/The New York TimSli 1 of 14 Pooja Mandagere, left, and Natalie Thompson outsi the Supreme Court on Friday after led favor of same-sex Mills/The New York TimJune 26, 2015WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court led by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constutn guarante a right to same-sex marriage. “The Supreme Court’s cisn is a huge victory for same-sex upl the US that will reverberate many untri that still ny people the right to marry the person they love, ” said Boris Dtrich, lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) rights advocy director at Human Rights Watch. 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. It immediately led to scen of jubilatn om ast to ast, as mpaigners, policians and everyday people – gay, straight and -between – hailed “a victory of love” lg, which Jtice Anthony Kennedy st the cidg vote, means the number of stat where gay marriage is legal will rise – albe after some stallg – om 37 to 50.

GAY MARRIAGE

Photograph: Evan Golub/Demotix/CorbisThe crowd outsi the urt – ed, across the untry – epted joy after the lg was hand down, wh many longtime mpaigners cryg tears of joy and embracg their of “Love has won” reverberated among the hundreds gathered below the urt steps and across the street outsi the US Capol, as rabow flags tertwed wh the Amerin the crowd was California reprentative Mark Takano, an openly gay member of Congrs who scribed beg at the scene as both “profound and poted”.

“The arc of history is que clear that the stggle for LGBT equaly is part of our civil rights, ” Takano sex marriage discrimatnJudd Proctor, a 65-year-old rint of Silver Sprg, Maryland, said he never thought he would live to see the day that gay marriage would be a nstutnal right. Photograph: Eric Gay/APRandy Johnson, a platiff one of the ncurrent s brought om Kentucky before the urt wh his partner Pl Campn, said he still had goosebumps, hours after their 20-year-old son had texted them two words: “We won. Kathie DeNobriga, the mayor of Atlanta suburb Pe Lake who married her long-term partner out of state last year as one of the few openly gay policians the Amerin south, lled the urt lg “a victory of love opposn to fear”.

THE PRICE OF GAY MARRIAGE

”Legal same-sex weddgs were takg place for the first time on Friday across Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennsee, even as the attorneys general Texas and Mississippi said marriag uld not take place attorney general Ken Paxton issued a long statement suggtg he would attempt to fight the legalisatn of gay marriage by assertg the “relig liberti” of clerks and officials.

”The natn’s hight tribunal last weighed marriage equaly 2012, wh challeng to California’s effective ban on same-sex marriag, known as Proposn 8, and a key provisn of the feral Defense of Marriage Act (Doma) jtic then led favor of marriage equaly proponents, but ducked the qutn of whether gay marriage was a nstutnal right.

Together, they volve a dozen upl who challenged same-sex marriage bans Oh, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennsee — the only stat wh bans on marriage between gay and lbian upl that had been staed by a feral appeals urt. As NPR's Na Totenberg reported when the Supreme Court heard the current se back April, nservative jtic had poted qutns for the attorneys: "Jtice Slia asked whether misters would be able to refe to marry two gay men.

THE SUPREME COURT AND GAY MARRIAGE

Kennedy has wrten the opn signifint gay rights s and when he uttered the key sentence that same-sex upl should be able to exercise the right to marry all stat, people the Court’s public gallery broke to s and some wiped tears om their ey.

Hundreds of same-sex marriage supporters flood the plaza and siwalk ont of the Court to celebrate the lg, proudly wavg rabow flags and banners wh the Human Rights Campaign’s equal sign, which have e to reprent the gay rights movement. Attorney John Bursch, servg as Michigan’s Special Assistant Attorney General, fend four stat’ bans on gay marriage before the Court, argug that the se was not about how to fe marriage, but rather about who gets to ci the qutn. “It is simply untenable – untenable – to suggt that they n be nied the right of equal participatn an stutn of marriage, or that they n be required to wa until the majory cis that is ready to treat gay and lbian people as equals.

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.

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

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. 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.

GAY MARRIAGE ARGUMENTS DIVI SUPREME COURT JTIC

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.

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. 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.