The History of Same Sex Marriage in the U.S.

It’s been six years this June since the U.S. attained full marriage equality. It took 45 years to get where we are today, and the road was full of hills and valleys.

In 1970, Richard Baker and James McConnell applied for a marriage license in the state of Minnesota. Their application was rejected because they were a same sex couple, and a trial court upheld the decision. They appealed to the state supreme court and were again rejected. In 1972, the couple tried to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court; the case was declined. Due to this decision, no federal courts would rule on same sex marriage for decades. After the ruling, multiple states began creating laws defining marriage as a union between a man and woman, beginning with Maryland in 1973.

The late 80s and early 90s showed some signs of progress. In 1989, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance allowing homosexual couples and unmarried heterosexual couples domestic partnerships. These partnerships allowed hospital visitation rights and other benefits. A similar law passed three years later in Washington D.C. The highest court in Hawaii ruled a ban on same sex marriage violated the Equal Protection Clause in the state’s constitution in 1993. The ruling was tied up in litigation for three years while the state tried to justify the ban.

The first steps of victory were short lived. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed into law by President Clinton. Through DOMA, only heterosexual couples could receive federal marriage benefits. Even if states passed same sex marriage laws, federal law would still prevent several benefits, including filing joint income taxes or receiving their spouse’s social security payments. Additionally, while a Hawaiian judge ordered the courts to stop denying licenses to same sex couples, the state voted for a ban on same sex unions two years later.

 In 2000, changes began to give hope for marriage equality. Vermont passed civil unions that allowed residents to receive almost all the same marriage benefits. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage and started issuing licenses in 2004. The same year, the Senate blocked a resolution banning gay marriage. While 2004 showed a lot of progress, there were also moments of discouragement and reversal. During the next three years, 20 states enacted state-level bans on gay marriage. By the end of the decade, three states legalized gay marriage.

California experienced a similar pattern of highs and lows in its journey to marriage equality. In 1999, the state was the first to pass a domestic partnership statute. However, in 2005 and 2007, the governor vetoed attempts to pass a same sex marriage bill. The state supreme court reversed the law banning same sex marriage, but the same year, voters passed Proposition 8 banning same sex marriage. The proposition was ruled unconstitutional, but not until two years later and was tied up in additional court proceedings until 2013, when same sex marriage was finally ruled legal. That same year, three more states created constitutional amendments breaking the ban on same sex marriage.

In 2010, the issue rose to the federal level again. Massachusetts ruled Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional. A few years later, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear United States vs. Windsor.

“In 2007, New York lesbian couple Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer wed in Ontario, Canada. The State of New York recognized the residents’ marriage, but the federal government, thanks to DOMA, did not. When Spyer died in 2009, she left her estate to Windsor; since the couple’s marriage was not federally recognized, Windsor didn’t qualify for tax exemption as a surviving spouse and the government imposed $363,000 in estate taxes.

Windsor sued the government in late 2010. A few months later, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Barack Obama administration would no longer defend DOMA, leaving a representative of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives to take on the case.

In 2012, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that DOMA violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments for the case. The following year, the court ruled in favor of Windsor, ultimately striking down Section 3 of DOMA.”

The repeal of Section 3 of DOMA was a major victory, but the rest of the act was still in place, continuing to prevent the full benefits of marriage. One of the biggest barriers within the act was the ability for states to ban or refuse same sex marriages. Several states, including Michigan, heard cases declaring the bans violated the 14th amendment. While the cases were won at the trial court level, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District ruled against the plaintiffs. The case was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2015, same-sex marriage was declared legal with full benefits.

Source:

·       History.com Editors. “Gay Marriage.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 June 2017, www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/gay-marriage.