After The Losses } LGTB Have Reached Unprecedented In Momentum
Currently six states issue same-sex marriage licenses with several considering legalizing same-sex marriages.
Institutions across the nation have made neck-breaking advancement for gay rights in the last few months with an unprecedented amount of same-sex marriage bills being considered and supported in several states.
The Maryland Senate voted Thursday to allow same sex marriages, just two weeks after Washington voters legalized same sex marriages in their state. New Jersey voters had also attempted to legalize same-sex marriages, but Governor Chris Christie vetoed the legislation. Several other states are also on the verge of repealing bans on gay marriage.
“I think right now the younger generation, which is the millennium generation, is actually coming into the voting age now and the public opinion polls which detail people who are eligible to vote are beginning to shift,” said Cory Allen, President of the Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club and Los Angeles County Regional Director for the California Young Democrats.
“I think it’s absolutely a civil rights movement that is moving forward in probably a less traditional way without riots and rallies but you’re seeing these public outcries that this isn’t right,” said Allen, refering to bans on same-sex marriages.
Before actually granting marriage licenses, Maryland and Washington will likely face lawsuits from opponents of gay marriages. Based on legal precedence however, courts across the nation have been clear in their rulings recently about gay marriages.
On Feb. 7, three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Proposition 8— a bill in California which bans marriages not between a man and a woman— was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is expected to review the case.
In a separate case Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco ruled that DOMA— the Defense of Marriage Act passed in 1996 which specified that marriage is between a man and a woman— was unconstitutional. The ruling opens the door to extending almost 1,000 federal benefits of legal marriage to gay couples.
"The Court finds that the passage of DOMA, rather than maintaining the status quo in the arena of domestic relations, stands in stark contrast to it," White wrote in the court opinion.
Thursday, the same day Maryland legalized same sex marriages, the Obama Administration said it would no longer oppose legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act.
The change by the administration’s stance on DOMA comes just two months after it repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a ban on openly gay military personnel.
“I think that there is definitely several organizations and community groups that are celebrating right now, but they are also trying to strategize about what we can do to make sure that we keep moving forward,” said James Thing, an expert of gay gender studies at the University of Southern California.
“Some of the states that have passed gay marriage, they have not been thought of traditionally progressive states,” said Thing, who suggests that states with large gay communities and developed networks of mobilization are more likely to see initiatives for legalizing gay marriage.
Six States currently issue same-sex marriage licenses—Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, New York and Vermont. Five states recognize civil unions that provide similar rights as do marriage.
Looking forward, New Hampshire voters are considering repealing their ban on same sex marriages. Lawsuits are pending in at least 12 states to repeal bans on same sex marriages, states like California. Minnesota and North Carolina residents will vote on legalizing same-sex marriages on the national November ballots. North Carolina would be the first southern state to say no to a ban on same-sex marriages if it repeals its current ban.
Reach Associate News Editor Jerry Ting Here.
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