Same-sex Marriage

As of recent we have seen more and more the emerging topic of same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriages are not legal in the United States,however,five states have legalized same-sex marriage as a result of a court ruling. As a result, partners in same-sex relationships often lack privileges, such as the right to inherit property and to medical, tax, and retirement benefits, that partners in traditional marriages benefit from. However, local governments are beginning to acknowledge domestic partnerships. This recognition gives members of an unmarried couple most of the same benefits as married couples.
While many attempts to earn societal recognition of same-sex unions through the 1970s were unsuccessful, some local communities and private companies began recognizing such "same-sex partnerships" through the 1980s. While some members of the gay and lesbian community continued to press for recognition of their unions as legal marriages, others in the community felt that marriage itself was a patriarchal and sexist institution with which they did not want to identify. Regardless of the divide, many people fighting for the cause believe that all members of the gay and lesbian community should get together on the topic and fight united for the cause.
In 2000 the Vermont legislature, in response to the 1999 state Supreme Court decision Baker vs. State, established a set of guidelines to honor same-sex partners with privileges usually reserved for married couples. Several specific family laws, rights of inheritance, and state tax privileges became applicable to Vermont residents in same-sex partnerships. Further federal privileges were not, however, extended to Vermont same-sex couples. While the U.S. Constitution provides for "full faith and credit" to extend the laws of one state into others, the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act specifically prevented this extension to be granted in the case of same-sex partnerships. In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom required city clerks to validate same-sex marriages with licenses. His decision prompted other communities to do the same. The state of Massachusetts, in its Goodridge vs. Department of Public Health ruling, cleared the way for state acknowledgment of same-sex marriages in the same year.
Various groups have proposed challenges to such local and state rulings that would fortify the Defense of Marriage Act or put into place a marriage amendment. These movements intend to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and invalidate the legal standing of same-sex partnerships. Such efforts have resulted in a diversity of opinion with some in the middle arguing that such decisions of family law should remain at the local and state level. Others have also challenged what they feel are motivations by religious groups with a vested interest in the marriage debate to blur the line between religion and politics.

Same-sex marriage. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage