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”