pink weddings magazine » 9
AcroSS the Pond
‘As of mid-February,
37 US states – out of
50 – allow same-sex
marriage, but the
journey has been a
complicated one.’
S
ince the legalisation of same-sex marriage in
March 2014, the UK has joined the ranks of a
growing number of countries that are
supporting marriage equality. As of the
beginning of this year, there are 17 nations
around the world that allow gay couples to marry – the
Netherlands led the way in 2001 as the first to change
their laws, with Luxembourg becoming the most recent
country to legalise gay marriage on 1 January 2015.
As of mid-February, 37 US states – out of 50 – allow
same-sex marriage, but the journey to this point has been
a complicated one.
Back in 1972, Minnesota couple Richard Baker and
James Michael McConnell brought a case against their
state to challenge the fact that they had been denied a
marriage licence. Although they ultimately lost their state
and supreme court cases, it started to encourage debate
about equality in the US.
In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was
passed by the government of the time. The act gave each
individual state the right to refuse to recognise same-sex
marriages granted in other states, and denied federal rights
and protections to legally married same-sex couples. It also
removed the federal government’s ability to make the
decision of legalising same-sex marriage on the state’s
behalf – each state had the right to make its own laws.
Despite this, after a lengthy legal process,
Massachusetts became the first state to take the plunge in
2004. The city of Cambridge welcomed the landmark
decision eagerly, decorating their City Hall to the nines and
0
20
40
60
2013
2010
1996
57%
44%
27%
In the US, public support for legal recognition of
same-sex marriage has risen from 27% in 1996 to
57% in 2013
(Gallup, 2013)
opening at 12.01am to allowmore than 200 couples to get
their marriage licences – waiving the usual waiting time of
three weeks. Just after 9 o’clock that morning, the first
couple to wed were Tanya McCloskey and Marcia Kadish.
After this, other states slowly started to follow suit –
Connecticut in 2008, Iowa and Vermont in 2009, New
Hampshire in 2010, New York in 2011 and Maine and
Washington in 2012.
However, it wasn’t until June 2013 that the supreme
court ruled that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional,
meaning that same-sex couples now had the same rights as
heterosexual couples. This was a significant win for the
proponents of the movement for change.
t
he fight for equality became much more
publicised to the American people, as
celebrities, public officials and business
leaders all added their voice to the call for
action. Public attitudes began to change in
support of marriage equality, and it paved the way for
more and more states to issue rulings in favour of and put
down bans against same-sex marriage.
Over the last few years, there has been a slew of cases in
state and federal courts that have ruled that marriage bans
violate the American constitution. These gains have meant
that there is now a record number of Americans living in
states where same-sex marriage is permitted.
tomaRRy
