Assignment #5 - LGBTQ Families

1) According to the article, what percent of Americans polled support gay marriage and why is this news?

In correspondence with this article, the poll determined that 45% or more of Americans support gay marriage (Gelman, Lax, and Phillips, 2010). The reason that the percentage of Americans found to support gay marriage is news is because according to this article, August 2010 was the first time ever that it was discovered that the majority of Americans actually support gay marriage. This statistic is also shocking considering that the percentage of Americans who support gay marriage has increased by about 20% since 1996, when the percentage of Americans who supported gay marriage was just at 25% (Gelman, Lax, and Phillips, 2010).

2) Click on the link to Proposition 8 in the NY Times article. What is Proposition 8? Also, briefly describe the history of Prop 8 over the past few years.

In accordance with this New York Times article, Proposition 8 is a California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in the year 2008 (The New York Times, 2010).

Proposition 8 has a very complex background. On May 15, 2008, California’s Supreme Court voted that by banning same-sex marriages in their state, their state was illegally discriminating against gay men and women due to the fact that they did not believe domestic partnerships were reasonable alternatives to marriage. As stated in this article, the Supreme Court ruled “that whatever term is used by the state must be granted to all couples who meet its requirements, whatever their gender” (The New York Times, 2010). In other words, gay couples should be granted the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples and any other sexual orientations that exist among couples. Shortly after the Supreme Court made the decision to allow same-sex marriages in the state of California, many members rejecting same-sex marriages organized a campaign to fight against the support of same-sex marriages. On November 4, 2008, Proposition 8 was passed after 52% of voters supported banning same-sex marriages (The New York Times, 2010). The following year, on May 26, 2009, the Supreme Court banned same-sex marriages while stating that the 18,000 gay couples who were already married in California would be able to remain legally married (The New York Times, 2010).

As a result of this ban, many supporters of gay marriage attempted to argue against Proposition 8. In May 2009, the same month that the Supreme Court banned same-sex marriages in the state of California, two lawyers by the names of David Boies and Theodore B. Olson (2009) filed a case known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger in an attempt to defend a gay couple who felt that Proposition 8 restricted their constitutional rights and freedom (The New York Times, 2010). In San Francisco, California a federal judge referred to as Judge Walker rejected the case in August of 2010, continuing to illegalize same-sex marriages in California (The New York Times, 2010).

3) According to the Defense of Marriage Act amendment, what is the definition of marriage in the U.S.?

According to the Defense of Marriage Act Amendment, the definition of marriage in the United States is “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and moreover, a spouse is defined as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife” (The Life of Congress, Section 3 Definition of Marriage and Section 7, 1996). Therefore, in relation to the definition of marriage in the United States, gay couples and gay marriages are not even acknowledged.

4) Choose two states and compare their positions on gay marriage.

I chose to compare the states of Colorado and Virginia. My reason for deciding to examine these states’ positions on marriage is because when I was younger, I lived in Colorado, and I was born in Virginia. I was extremely interested to see Colorado’s and Virginia’s stands on gay marriage and their adoption of the Defense of Marriage Act amendment.

I discovered that Colorado is a state that does have a Defense of Marriage Act. In November of 2006, Colorado passed a constitutional amendment which states that only heterosexual marriages between a man and a woman are legal. Colorado also discussed a referendum that would have given rights and benefits to domestic partner marriages (Godoy, NPR, 2009).

Like Colorado, the state Virginia of Virginia also approved a constitutional amendment in the year 2006 that banned gay marriage. Virginia has a Defense of Marriage act as well (Godoy, NPR, 2009).

Therefore, both Colorado and Virginia present similar views regarding gay marriages and the Defense of Marriage Act.