This paper discusses the constitutionality of gay marriages.
Written in 2005; 1,155 words; 6 sources; MLA; $ 39.95
Paper Summary:
This paper explains that most religious and conservative people believe that marriage was created for the purpose of procreation; whereas, proponents of gay marriages believe that the U.S. Constitution provides for a strict separation of the church and the state and as such religious arguments do not have a legitimate place in the debate and that the Fourteenth Amendment protects the right of private consensual sex and as such the prohibition of gay marriages is a violation of such rights. The author points out that the gay marriage issue came to the forefront of national debate in 1996 when several Hawaiian gay couples sued for the right to marry legally, which resulted in the passage of "The Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)" in 1996. The paper relates that, in May 2005, a U.S. Federal District Judge struck down sweeping provisions of the Nebraska constitution that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman and banned same-sex civil unions, domestic partnerships and other similar relationships as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Table of Contents
Marriage, Gay Marriage and Same Sex Unions
The Controversy
The Constitutional Debate
The Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
State Laws Recognizing Same Sex Unions
Conservatives Propose Constitutional Amendment
Federal Judge strikes down Nebraska Gay Marriage Ban
Conclusion
From the Paper:
"The passage of DOMA did not deter gay-right activists in their campaign for the legal recognition of gay marriages and in 2000, Vermont became the first state to allow gay partners to join in a civil union with the same rights enjoyed by married heterosexual couples under state law. Maine, Hawaii, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut have also enacted laws that give some degree of rights to gay civil unions and partnerships since then. On November 18, 2003, in Goodridge v.Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial ruled that: "barring an individual from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution." Implementing the Court's decision, Massachusetts made same sex marriage legal in the state on May 17, 2004; it is thus far the only state to do so. Most other states have enacted constitutional provisions that define marriage as a union of one man and one woman."
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