How Same-Sex Marriage Came to Be Fifty years ago, every state criminalized homosexual sex, and even the would not hire people who were openly gay or permit them to serve in the military. Police routinely raided gay bars. Only a handful of gay-rights organizations existed, and their membership was sparse. Most Americans would have considered the idea of same-sex marriage endorsing such marriages; among those aged 18 to 29, support is as high as 70 percent. President Barack Obama has embraced marriage equality. fact, in three states—approved same-sex marriage, and in a fourth, they How did support for gay marriage grow so quickly—to the point where the The Pre-Marriage Era In the early 1970s, amid a burst of gay activism unleashed by the lawsuits demanding marriage licenses. Courts did not take their justices would not dignify the gay-marriage claim by asking even a Marriage equality was not then a priority of gay activists. Rather, electing the nation’s first openly gay public officials. Indeed, most gays and lesbians at the time were deeply ambivalent about marriage. from rape. Most sex radicals objected to traditional marriage’s insistence on monogamy; for them, gay liberation meant sexual of their relationships—and even gay marriage. The AIDS epidemic had highlighted the vulnerability of gay and lesbian partnerships: nearly 50,000 people had died of AIDS, two-thirds of them gay men; the median age of the deceased was 36. An entire generation of young gay men was inheritance. In addition, the many gay and lesbian baby boomers who homosexual sex immoral, only 29 percent supported gay adoptions, and only 10 percent to 20 percent backed same-sex marriage. Not a single jurisdiction in the world had yet embraced marriage equality. In 1991, three gay couples in Hawaii challenged the constitutionality of laws limiting marriage to a man and woman. No national gay-rights couples from marriage was presumptively unconstitutional. The case was show a compelling justification for banning gay marriage. In 1996, a even in a relatively gay-friendly state, marriage equality was then a For the Republican Party in the 1990s, gay marriage was a dream issue recognition to gay marriages lawfully performed elsewhere. (Such marriages were nonexistent at the time.) One poll showed that 68 percent of Americans opposed gay marriage. By 2001, 35 states had marriage—usually by overwhelming margins. Gay marriage also entered the national political arena in 1996. Just days before the Republican Party’s Iowa caucuses, antigay activists conducted a “marriage protection” rally at which presidential candidates denounced the “homosexual agenda,” which was said to be “destroying the integrity of the marriage-based family.” A few months Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which provided that no state was required to recognize another’s same-sex marriages and that the federal traditional definition of marriage discriminated against same-sex marriage law to include same-sex couples or of creating a new with all of the benefits of marriage. their own lawsuit in 2001 demanding marriage equality. In 2003, the recognize same-sex marriage. state elections, marriage-equality supporters actually gained seats in constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and Americans at the time rejected gay marriage by two to one, and self-identified gays voted Democratic, yet some of the party’s Americans, tended to strongly oppose gay marriage. institution of marriage.” Although most congressional Democrats opposed definition of marriage on the ballot in 13 states in 2004, hoping to make gay marriage more salient in the minds of voters and inspire coast-to-coast rejection of gay marriage.” Most of the amendments gay marriage to rescue his floundering campaign. State party leaders marriage amendment, “limp-wristed” and a “switch hitter,” and reporters began asking him if he was gay. On Election Day, a state ballot measure barring gay marriage passed by three to one, while Bunning squeaked against gay marriage. gay marriage a centerpiece of his campaign. Thune pressed Daschle to explain his opposition to the federal marriage amendment and warned that “the institution of marriage is under attack from extremist border in North Dakota, a state marriage amendment passed by 73 percent Bush regularly called for passage of the federal marriage amendment hailed from Massachusetts, whose judges had decreed gay marriage a percent, while the gay-marriage ban passed by 24 percentage points. If the marriage amendment mobilized enough conservatives to turn out or group most likely to oppose gay marriage—the increase in Bush’s share amendments barring same-sex marriage. In 2006-07, high courts in rejected gay marriage. Despite the fierce political backlash ignited by gay-marriage rulings in the 1990s and 2000s, public backing for gay rights continued to reported knowing someone gay increased from 25 percent in 1985 to 74 percent in 2000. Knowing gay people strongly predicts support for gay knowing someone gay favored gay marriage or civil unions, versus just 35 percent of those who reported not knowing any gays. Support for allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military marriage without the title increased from 23 percent in 1989 to 56 one network television show had a regularly appearing gay character, child to watch a show with gay characters. By mid decade, however, the were dealing with gay marriage, and in 1997, Ellen DeGeneres famously acceptance of homosexuality. As society became more gay-friendly, millions of gays and lesbians chose to come out of the closet. And support for gay marriage gradually after the Massachusetts ruling, one study showed that opponents of gay marriage outnumbered supporters by 29 percentage points; by 2008, that Support for gay marriage grew for a second, related reason: young to know someone who is openly gay and have grown up in an environment that is much more tolerant of homosexuality than that of their parents. toward gay marriage. Moreover, despite the short-term political backlash it sparked, gay marriage litigation has probably advanced the cause of marriage the salience of gay marriage, making it an issue subject to much The gay-marriage rulings have also affected individuals’ actions and preferences. Litigation victories inspired gay activists to file lawsuits in additional states. The rulings also led more gay couples to want marriage—an institution about which they previously had been know they cannot have; the court decisions made gay marriage seem more Finally, the gay-marriage rulings created thousands of same-sex married differently about marriage equality. The sky did not fall. Legislated Marriage Equality As support for gay marriage grew, high courts in California and 5 percentage points. (Support for gay marriage in California had grown Six months after this bitter defeat, gay marriage took an enormous leap Court and three legislatures in New England embraced marriage equality. unlike other state court rulings in favor of marriage equality; and it to enact gay marriage legislatively, and New Hampshire and Maine But that fall, Maine voters vetoed the gay-marriage law by 52.8 percent New York and New Jersey, where gay-marriage bills were defeated after legislature refused to permit a referendum on a state marriage candidates denounced gay marriage; four supported a state made the election into a referendum on gay marriage, and the justices Elsewhere, gay marriage leapt forward. In 2011, the New York Maryland, and New Jersey passed gay-marriage bills, though Governor time, American voters endorsed gay marriage, in three states: voters in Washington and Maryland ratified marriage-equality bills; Mainers approved a gay-marriage initiative (reversing the 2009 outcome). That bar gay marriage—becoming only the second state in which voters had challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and deferred to state definitions of marriage; conservative justices who with liberal justices who probably support marriage equality to to gay marriage, given that only nine states and the District of supporting gay rights, one of which explicitly embraces the notion of a relevant to American constitutional interpretation, and marriage likely be regarded as the Brown v. Board of Education of the gay-rights Whether or not the Court deems gay marriage a constitutional right this year, the future seems clear. Of late, support for marriage equality of people in a majority of states support gay marriage. By 2024, he marriage equality. In March 2011, the president of the Southern Baptist same-sex marriage…is going to become normalized, legalized, and People who believe that gay marriage contravenes God’s will are not are diminishing. Moreover, religious conservatives who condemn gay marriage will continue to influence Republican politicians who need marriage equality is likely to continue for several more years, even and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage.