Marriage Equality

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dombrink
Keyword(s):  
Gay Rights ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Center Of Gravity ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Significant Issue ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
The Social

This chapter traces the steady and dramatic changes in American attitudes toward, and legal reform of, marriage equality. This is analyzed as an example of the “de-wedging” of one of the key “wedge issues” utilized by the social and religious conservatives from 1980 onward, that of gay rights generally and same-sex marriage specifically. It uses as a touchpoint one analyst’s observation: “It’s hard to imagine a significant issue in which the center of gravity is shifting faster than gay marriage in this country.”

The Early 2000s

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Michael J. Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
Court Decision ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
State Laws ◽  
State Supreme Court ◽  
The U.S

Chapter 9 tells the story of Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court decision that finally struck down the remaining state laws that criminalized sodomy. In 2004 Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to have marriage equality, following the state supreme court decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. Opponents of gay rights fought furiously to overturn marriage equality in Massachusetts, but once straight people saw that marriage equality cost them nothing, the opposition faded away. Gay rights groups in Massachusetts prevailed despite having many institutional disadvantages. In California in 2008, Proposition 8 was passed by voters to reintroduce a same-sex marriage ban.

Just Married

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Macedo
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
The Right ◽  
Marriage Reform

The institution of marriage stands at a critical juncture. As gay marriage equality gains acceptance in law and public opinion, questions abound regarding marriage's future. Will same-sex marriage lead to more radical marriage reform? Should it? Antonin Scalia and many others on the right warn of a slippery slope from same-sex marriage toward polygamy, adult incest, and the dissolution of marriage as we know it. Equally, many academics, activists, and intellectuals on the left contend that there is no place for monogamous marriage as a special status defined by law. This book demonstrates that both sides are wrong: the same principles of democratic justice that demand marriage equality for same-sex couples also lend support to monogamous marriage. The book displays the groundlessness of arguments against same-sex marriage and defends marriage as a public institution against those who would eliminate its special status or supplant it with private arrangements. Arguing that monogamy reflects and cultivates our most basic democratic values, the book opposes the legal recognition of polygamy, but agrees with progressives that public policies should do more to support nontraditional caring and caregiving relationships. Throughout, the book explores the meaning of contemporary marriage and the reasons for its fragility and its enduring significance. Casting new light on today's debates over the future of marriage, the book lays the groundwork for a stronger institution.

What Obergefell v. Hodges Should Have Said

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

The authors of this book, sitting as a hypothetical Supreme Court, rewrite the famous 2015 opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry. In eleven incisive opinions, the authors offer the best constitutional arguments for and against the right to same-sex marriage, and debate what Obergefell should mean for the future. In addition to serving as Chief Justice of this imaginary court, the book's editor provides a critical introduction to the case. He recounts the story of the gay rights litigation that led to Obergefell, and he explains how courts respond to political mobilizations for new rights claims. The social movement for gay rights and marriage equality is a powerful example of how — through legal imagination and political struggle — arguments once dismissed as “off-the-wall” can later become established in American constitutional law.

The Courts Begin to Appreciate Gay Rights: Romer and Baehr, 1996

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-101
Author(s):  
Michael J. Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
State Court ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
First Time ◽  
The U.S

Chapter 6 describes two important breakthroughs in the courts for gay rights. In 1996 the U.S. Supreme Court decided Romer v. Evans in favor of gay plaintiffs from Colorado who had had their rights reduced by a voter referendum. The Supreme Court upheld state court rulings which had overturned the referendum. The Romer decision, written by Anthony Kennedy, was the first Supreme Court decision to affirmatively defend the rights of gay people. In the fall of 1996 in Hawaii a same-sex marriage trial, Baehr v. Miike, showed for the first time that the opponents of marriage equality had no scientific or empirical basis for preventing same-sex marriages from being recognized. The marriage plaintiffs won in court, but the voters of Hawaii reinstated the same-sex marriage ban. Hawaii did not become a marriage equality state until 2013.

The invention of tradition: Same-sex marriage and its discontents in Hong Kong

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-562
Author(s):  
Marco Wan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Tax Assessment ◽  
Traditional Marriage ◽  
The Government

Abstract In Leung Chun Kwong v. Secretary for the Civil Service, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal held that the government unlawfully discriminated against a gay civil servant by refusing to recognize his same-sex marriage—entered into abroad—when considering the granting of local spousal benefits and joint tax assessment. The year before, in QT v. Director of Immigration, the court had ruled against the government for denying the partner of a British lesbian a dependant visa on the basis of her sexual orientation. QT and Leung Chun Kwong are landmarks in the rapidly evolving jurisprudence on same-sex marriage in the territory. This article presents an analysis of the Hong Kong cases relating to gay rights and same-sex marriage. It contends that, even though the need to protect traditional marriage is cited as a reason against marriage equality in many jurisdictions, the claim is particularly problematic in Hong Kong, given the city’s unique marriage history. It draws on the historian Eric Hobsbawm’s notion of “the invention of tradition” to argue that the rhetoric of traditional marriage conjures up an imagined past that displaces a vast and varied set of long-standing marital practices. By exploring government reports and records pertaining to Chinese marriages in colonial Hong Kong, this article then examines these forgotten traditions and demonstrates their significance for understanding the marriage equality debate in the territory in our own time.

‘Changing Marriage? Messing with Mr. In-Between?: Reflections upon Media Debates on Same-Sex Marriage in Ireland’

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-168
Author(s):  
Sean Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Gay Couples ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Irish Case

This article explores some aspects of the emergence of local debates around same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland. Taking up this issue through an analysis of Irish (local) mediatized reactions to the introduction of German gay marriage in 2001, I point to how we can see some evidence of a shift away from Irish traditional relationships between the social, politics and religion, which served to police and silence much public discussion about sexuality. While prudery about sexual issues still remains, my paper points to the emergence of prudent-yet-tolerant sharing of stories about the social exclusion of same-sex couples. In spite of recent setbacks for a legal case seeking the recognition of a foreign same-sex marriage in Ireland, we may point to a growing political and legal consciousness for the extension of rights for lesbian and gay couples but it is still unclear as to what model will be adopted in the Irish context. While in the Irish case, there is only intermittent media interest in ‘gay marriage’, we can locate this struggle within the framework of the sociology of intimate citizenship. Not only do claims for same-sex marriage illustrate pointed inequalities experienced by lesbians and gay men, the stories also problematize the naturalness of heterosexuality. The Irish case may, of course, be explored within the context of a global challenge to gender identity where the imagined same-sex couple enjoy some element of certainty in an uncertain world.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh Moscowitz
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
New Era ◽  
Commercial Media ◽  
Media Discourses

This concluding chapter highlights the limits of commercial media as a route to social change and critiques the institution of marriage as a route to inclusive citizenship. It first considers how gay marriage in the 2000s was interpreted as a case of trouble for “straight America,” a reflection of the larger anxieties over an institution that appears to be fragile and falling out of favor. It then examines how the same-sex marriage debate also meant trouble for gay rights activists who sought to influence news frames and images and for the LGBTQ community more generally. It argues that the images and narratives employed in both activist strategies and news media discourses may unwittingly work to stigmatize (unmarried) gays and lesbians—and especially bisexual, transgender, and queer citizens—who do not fit the “normative” mold in this new era of visibility.

Gay Marriage in an Era of Media Visibility

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh Moscowitz
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Gay And Lesbian ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Gay Rights Movement

This book examines how media coverage helped to define and shape the gay marriage debate as well as gay rights activism during the period 2003–2012. Through an analysis of media reports and in-depth interviews with leaders of the modern gay rights movement, it investigates how media frames and activist discourses evolved surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage. It looks at the aims and challenges of leading gay rights activists who sought to harness the power of mainstream news media to advocate for their cause and reform images of their community. It also considers how gay and lesbian rights groups attempted to shape coverage of the same-sex marriage debate, and what images and narratives about gay and lesbian life activists foregrounded. Finally, it discusses ways in which media attention surrounding the gay-marriage issue reshaped the structure, organization, and goals of the contemporary gay rights movement. This introduction provides an overview of the legal and political contexts of gay marriage in the United States, the rise of gay-themed media, and the research approach and plan of the book.

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