Until 2004, gay couples couldn’t wed anywhere in the country. Now, gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, Maine and most recently New Hampshire. Despite these historic strides by the gay marriage rights movement, though, the United States is still a nation divided over whether to redefine marriage. The California Supreme Court upheld the state’s voter-approved constitutional ban on gay marriage rights, but ruled that some the eighteen thousand gay couples who wed before Proposition eight took effect would still be married under state law. Twenty nine other states have created voter approved prohibitions blocking gay marriage in their state constitution as a way to keep state judges from overturning the bans. A majority of Americans still oppose full marriage rights for gay couples, however they still believe that gay marriage rights are necessary. The Northeast is growing as a stronghold of government recognition of gay relationships, with legal wedlock in five states including Vermont as of Sept. 1, 2009, and Maine as of Sept. 16, 2009, if the law is not suspended because of a voter movement to repeal it, and New Hampshire as of Jan. 1, 2010. In the same region, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey and the District of Columbia also offer legal alternatives known as civil unions and domestic partnerships. New York and Rhode Island recognize out-of-state marriages of gay partners. Still however, gay marriage rights are not clearly accepted nor defined everywhere.
President Barack Obama accepts civil unions for gay couples an believes in gay marriage rights for them also. However, he’s still believes in the sanctity of marriage as an institution all its own. On the West Coast, California, Oregon and Washington offer gay couples all state level marriage benefits under domestic partnerships laws. Nevada and Hawaii have domestic partnership laws that offer some, but not all gay marriage rights and benefits. Iowa is the first heartland state to recognize gay marriage, effective April 24, 2009, following a unanimous state Supreme Court decision. Here in this state Gay marriage rights are given and match those of same sex couples.
Gay marriage rights is a difficult issue in America because of its conservative base. Many states reserve the right to create there own gay marriage rights that effect everyone in that state. Some states in the United states that are on the more conservative side, do not allow any recognition of this type of union. In some other countries however, gay marriage rights exist in the same manner that the same sex marriage rights do. The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Africa are the only countries where this exists.
Several countries in Europe are currently considering gay to determine exactly how they should be considered regarding marriage. will be dealt with. The gay issue is prevalent throughout the world and is not just an issue in the United States. However, In places like the United States the movement is being seriously considered everywhere. Sometimes, when the world is changing, laws will begin to as well.
More times than not it will take a revolution of some sort for countries and governments to notice. Gays, lesbians, trans genders, and bisexuals have existed for a long time, they are just recently beginning to fight for their rights. In the near future, gay marriage rights will be legal and fair in most of the industrialized world.
Tags: gay, Gay marriage rights