Current situation

Currently, 37 states, and Washington DC, have legalized same- sex marriage. That covers a majority of the US population. DC sets its own marriage law, because its not legally a state.

26 out of 37 states approved same-sex marriage by court decision

Alabama (Feb. 9, 2015)
Alaska (Oct. 17, 2014)
Arizona (Oct. 17, 2014)
California (June 28, 2013)
Colorado (Oct. 7, 2014)
Connecticut (Nov. 12, 2008)
Florida (Jan. 6, 2015)
Idaho (Oct. 13, 2014)
Indiana (Oct. 6, 2014)

Iowa (Apr. 24, 2009)

Kansas (Nov. 12, 2014)

Massachusetts (May 17, 2004)

Montana (Nov. 19, 2014)

Nevada (Oct. 9, 2014)

New Jersey (Oct. 21, 2013)

New Mexico (Dec. 19, 2013)

North Carolina (Oct. 10, 2014)

Oklahoma (Oct. 6, 2014)

Oregon (May 19, 2014)

Pennsylvania (May 20, 2014)

South Carolina (Nov. 20, 2014)

Utah (Oct. 6, 2014)

Virginia (Oct. 6, 2014)

West Virginia (Oct. 9, 2014)

Wisconsin (Oct. 6, 2014)

Wyoming (Oct. 21, 2014

8 states legalized it by state legislature

Delaware (July 1, 2013),

Hawaii (Dec. 2, 2013),

Illinois (June 1, 2014),

Minnesota (Aug. 1, 2013),

New Hampshire (Jan. 1, 2010),

New York (July 24, 2011),

Rhode Island (Aug. 1, 2013),

Vermont (Sep. 1, 2009)

3 did it by state vote

Maine (Dec. 29, 2012),

Maryland (Jan. 1, 2013),

Washington (Dec. 9, 2012)

·          13 states still ban the same-sex marriage.

·        12 do this by the constitutional Amendment and the state law

Arkansas (2004, 1997)

Georgia (2004, 1996)

Kentucky (2004, 1998)

Louisiana (2004, 1999)

Michigan (2004, 1996)

Mississippi (2004, 1997)

Missouri (2004, 1996) 

North Dakota (2004, 1997)

Ohio (2004, 2004)

South Dakota (2006, 1996)

Tennessee (2006, 1996)

Texas (2005, 1997)

 Nebraska in 2000 is the only state which bans it by constitutional Amendment only. 

      8 states where gay marriage bans have been overturned, but where appeals are in progress 

     Arkansas

Kentucky

Michigan

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

South Dakota

Texas

Colorado  is the only state to allow civil unions but not marriage between same-sex couples.

Since gay marriage is now legal in 37 states, should they be allowed to marry nationwide? This is a question/ debate Maria Coyle from the national law journal 

 talks about in this video.

In 2012 the hip hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis released a song on that theme, it is named” Same Love”. The track talks about the issue of gay and lesbian rights and was recorded during the campaign for Washington Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage in Washington State in 2012. The song was nominated  at the 56^th Annual Grammy Awards for the Song of the year.

I hope todays post gave you a good overview about the beginnings of the debate and about the current situation of the same-sex marriage. Let´s  see what happens next according on that subject and if one day it will become legal all over the United States.

Sources:

http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004857

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQGMTPab9GQ

https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-gay-rights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkRaIrTaXho

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-21943292

Same-sex marriage

To close our blog we want to talk about a theme that is currently not only debated in the United States. It is debated all over the world. The same-sex marriage.

Before talking about the current situation, I would like to start with the beginning of the debate and when the question of legalizing same-sex marriage occurred. The history of legalizing the same sex-marriage differs from state to state and is very complex, so I will just briefly give an overview about the history of its beginnings and then concentrate more on the current situation.

The public national discussion around same-sex marriage first began in 1993 when the Hawaii Supreme Court rules that laws denying same-sex couples the right to marry violated the state constitutional equal protection rights.

Since that time, many states have taken actions to clearly define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, while others have allowed same-sex couples to marry.

Before 1993, seven states had laws that defined marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. After the Hawaii court decision the possibility raised that states could recognize same sex marriage. 32 state legislatures ( including Hawaii) adopted legal language defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.

Nebraska adopted a constitutional provision limiting marriage to relationships between a man and a woman. That resulted in 40 stats having statutory and/ or constitutional provisions limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples by the end of 2000.

In 2000 states began recognizing same-sex couples relationships

The state of Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex marriage.

From this time on, more and more states began to legalize the same-sex marriage

In 2012 Obama made US History when he told the ABC News:

“ I think same-sex couples should be able to get married”

The Law is the Enemy

One might think that in modern times, having overcome slavery, segregation and having elected the first African-American president, racial discrimination has long gone. But current floods of newspaper headlines proof this assumption to be far from true. African Americans still remain the most frequent victims of crimes, and even more shocking is the fact, that in many cases the culprit is a police official on duty. Race and accusations of brutality carried out by law enforcement officers continue to be closely linked, and the phenomenon has sparked race riots until today. 

According to the most recent one in Baltimore, the USA once more caused a worldwide stir with it´s exceptionally brutal and dramatic scenarios, happening in Afro-American neighborhoods. The dramatic death of Freddy Gray on the 12th of April 2015 was just the "gasoline, that fueled the fire", as one Afro-American participant of the riots put it into words. Gray´s death was an unnecessary, dramatic but sadly typical case of abuse of power - but with a final surprise of sanction.               

Laws intended to protect citizens against police abuse of authority include: 

• the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution - protection against unreasonable searches and seizures  
• the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution - Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses  
• the Civil Rights Act of 1871; (has evolved into a key U.S. law in brutality cases)   

However, all of those laws have been assessed as ultimately ineffective in deterring police brutality. Judges often give police convicted of brutality light sentences on the grounds that they have already been punished by damage to their careers. In fact, surveys of police officers found that police brutality, along with sleeping on duty, was viewed as one of the most common and least likely to be sanctioned forms of police offences, besides corruption. 

Therefore, the surprisingly quick and serious charges of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby in the case of Freddy Gray was more than overdue. The judge filed charges of murder and false imprisonment against police officers. In addition to this, four of the six officers are accused of manslaughter — which is extremely rare, almost unique.  

(i.e. North Charleston, police Officer Michael Slager, who was captured on video shooting a fleeing man in the back, has been charged with murder. But no charges were brought against the officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, of Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York or of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.) 

But there is no more excuses in times of videotapes that precipitate incidents and social media that disseminates them. The entire nation is witnessing and finally, hopefully, there will be legal actions, fair charges and no more outrageous conduct under color of law as this is a matter of official racism and personal sadism.  

Fixing poverty as Obama suggested, will not alone fix this problem. Senator Robert F. Kennedy put it differently, and had it right already 50 years ago: ”There is no point in telling Negroes to obey the law. To many Negroes, the law is the enemy,..." 

Sources:

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/the_law_is_the_enemy_what_rfk_can_remind_america_about_police_brutality/
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-riots/bs-md-gray-case-analysis-20150501-story.html