Gay rights in the United States
Encyclopedia
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in the United States have evolved over time and vary on a state-by-state basis. Sexual acts between persons of the same sex have been legal nationwide in the U.S.
since 2003, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas
.
Family, marriage, and anti-discrimination laws vary by state. Six states plus Washington, D.C.
currently offer marriage to same-sex couples
. Maryland does not offer same-sex marriages but does recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Additionally, some states offer civil unions
or other types of recognition which offer some of the legal benefits and protections of marriage.
Twenty-one states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation
, and fifteen states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on gender identity
or expression. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation
or gender identity
are also punishable by federal law under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
Adoption policies in regards to gay and lesbian parents also vary greatly from state to state. Some allow adoption by same-sex couples, while others ban all "unmarried couples" from adoption.
system and the diversity in attitudes toward LGBT rights, the status of LGBT civil rights in the U.S. is at present a patchwork. At the federal level, there is no recognition of same-sex unions and no laws forbidding employment discrimination against LGBT persons. Some states have enacted such laws, however.
ruled that it did not violate the federal Constitution for a state to deny a civil marriage license to a same-sex couple. The controversy over same-sex marriage was revived in 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the state constitutional ban on sex
discrimination meant that same-sex couples were entitled to a civil marriage license unless the state could prove a compelling state interest. A lower court in Hawaii then found that the state had failed to show such a compelling interest, and same-sex marriage was legal in Hawaii for a day, before the judge stayed his ruling and the state constitution was amended in 1998 to allow the legislature to restrict marriage to different-sex couples.While the events in Hawaii did not actually lead to marriage rights for same-sex couples, they helped prompt the United States Congress to enact the Defense of Marriage Act
in 1996, which forbade the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions and permitted states to decide for themselves whether to recognize same-sex unions performed in other jurisdictions; until that point, there had been a controversy over whether states would be required to extend marriage rights to couples married in other states. The rights and responsibilities of marriage
granted at the federal level, thus, do not apply to same-sex unions. Several states followed Congress and enacted similar laws denying recognition of marriage or other forms of union between two persons of the same sex.
The landmark case Braschi v. Stahl (74 N.Y.2d 201; 1989) redefined "family unit" in the State of New York. Miguel Braschi, brother of the prominent Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi
, lived in a rent controlled apartment with his gay partner Leslie Blanchard. When Blanchard died, the landlord Stahl & Associates notified Braschi that he was to be evicted because his name was not on the lease. The Trial Court found that that the long-term interdependent nature of the 10-year relationship between the two men "fulfills any definitional criteria of the term 'family.'" The Appellate Court reversed; Braschi appealed. The New York Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Court and granted the injunction to Braschi. The New York Supreme Court noted that the term family was not defined in the Statute, and there was no specific reference in the legislative history to the noneviction provision.
that the state had to offer the benefits and responsibilities of civil marriage to same-sex couples, and thus the state legislature enacted a civil union
s bill. In 2007, the legislature introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill passed in 2009 but was vetoed by the governor. However, the legislature overrode the veto, and the law became effective on September 1, 2009.
In 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Court, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
, legalized same-sex marriage
in Massachusetts.
In 2007 a similar decision in Iowa
ruled that restriction of marriage to opposite-sex couples was discriminatory. The decision was stayed to allow the state to appeal, although not before one same-sex couple had been issued a marriage license. In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court
unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling and marriage licenses to same-sex couples became available on April 24, 2009.
In May 2009, Maine passed a marriage equality law
. Same-sex marriage opponents placed a referendum to repeal the law on the November ballot and were successful in their repeal bid.
In 2010, Washington, D. C. legislatively enacted marriage equality in the district.
In 2011, New York
legalized same-sex marriages.
These state court opinions prompted calls for a Federal Marriage Amendment
, along with state amendments to ensure that courts would not change the civil definition of marriage. As of 2007, the legal options available to same-sex couples depend on what state they reside in.
Hawaii
(1997), California
(1999), Maine
(2004), Connecticut
(2005), New Jersey
(2007), Washington (2007), Oregon
(2008), Maryland
(2008), Colorado
(2009), Wisconsin
(2009), Nevada
(2009), Illinois
(2011), Rhode Island
(2011) and Delaware
(2012) have either civil unions or more limited domestic partnership
options for same-sex couples.
voters amended their constitution, 86% to 14% – the largest margin in any state – to ban same-sex marriage and to prohibit the state from recognizing same-sex marriages that are legal elsewhere. Laws in Virginia
, Michigan
, Nebraska
and Ohio
, the most far-reaching, forbids recognition of any benefits similar to those of marriage between people of the same sex.
in some states, although there are fewer states where they may adopt children jointly with their partners.
Older polls showed that the nation could be divided into roughly equal thirds: one third supports gay marriage completely, another supports only civil unions, and the last is against any form of union entirely. However, in terms of attitudes to homosexuality, the United States can hardly be called one country. It is common for polls to show a clear majority support for gay marriage in Northeastern states, and occasionally (but less frequently), Pacific Coast states. States that have consistently shown a majority support for gay marriage for at least the past few years include Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and the capital, as well as (occasionally) Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. While the majority of these states do not (currently) have gay marriage, Iowa, which does have gay marriage, does not have majority support; in fact, polls place support in the high thirties or low forties (still slightly higher than the national average). In New York, meanwhile, where there is a pretty clear majority support (consistently reported as at least a four-point lead since 2005), marriage only became legal in the middle of 2011 (and previously there had been nothing, despite the clear public opinion favoring marriage continuously for at least 6 years). Nonetheless, Iowa falls into a second category of states, where the incoming voting generation overwhelmingly supports gay marriage: those under thirty have support placed in the sixties.
and gay
members of the US military were previously subjected to the US's "Don't ask, don't tell
" policy. However, on December 18, 2010, The U. S. Senate voted 65-31 in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010
permitting homosexual men and women to serve openly in the armed forces, to take effect 60 days after certification by the President, Secretary, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Barack Obama
signed the repeal on December 22, 2010. On July 22, 2011, President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen
certified that the military was ready for the repeal and that it would take place in 60 days. Repeal of the ban on gays in the military took effect September 20th, 2011. Gays and lesbians are now free to serve openly.
Employment discrimination
refers to discriminatory employment practices such as bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation, and various types of harassment. In the United States
there is "very little statutory, common law
, and case law establishing employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation as a legal wrong." Some exceptions and alternative legal strategies are available. President Bill Clinton
's Executive Order 13087
(1998) prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce, and federal non-civil service employees may have recourse under the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Private sector workers may have a Title VII action under a quid pro quo sexual harassment
theory, a "hostile work environment" theory, a sexual stereotyping theory, or others.
Twenty-one states
, the District of Columbia, and over 140 cities and counties have enacted such bans. The states banning sexual orientation discrimination in employment are California
, Colorado
, Connecticut
, Delaware
, Hawaii
, Illinois
, Iowa
, Maine
, Maryland
, Massachusetts
, Minnesota
, Nevada
, New Hampshire
, New Jersey
, New Mexico
, New York
, Oregon
, Rhode Island
, Vermont
, Washington
, and Wisconsin
(the first state to do so, in 1982). Four states have laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in public workplaces only: Indiana, Michigan, Montana, and Pennsylvania. On November 22, 2007, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm issued an order guarding the rights of transgender men and women. She prohibited discrimination of state workers based on gender identity or expression. Many of these laws also ban discrimination in other contexts, such as housing or public accommodation. A proposed bill to ban anti-gay employment discrimination nationwide, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act
(ENDA), has been introduced in the U.S. Congress
, but its prospects of passage are not believed to be good under a Republican-controlled Congress.
Fifteen states plus the District of Columbia have reformed their state civil rights code by legislation or under the force of court decisions to include both sexual orientation
and gender identity
, while another six states have amended their civil rights code to include sexual orientation
, but not gender identity
. Aside from state law, about a hundred cities in thirty three states have enacted civil rights legislation that includes sexual orientation.
refers to discrimination against potential or current tenants by landlords. In the United States, there is no federal law against such discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but at least thirteen states and many major cities have enacted laws prohibiting it. See, for example, Washington House Bill 2661
.
issued an Executive Order
to the Department of Health and Human Services to draft new rules for all hospitals accepting Medicare
or Medicaid
funds. They would require facilities to grant visitation and medical decision-making rights to gay and lesbian partners, as well as designees of others such as widows and widowers. Such rights are not institutionalized in law in many states. Obama said he was inspired by the case of a Florida family, where one of the mothers died while her partner and four children were denied visitation by the hospital.
Hate crime laws (also known as bias crimes laws) protect against crimes motivated by feelings of enmity against a protected class. Until 2009, statutes permitted federal prosecution of hate crimes committed against a person's race, color, religion, or nation origin when engaging in a federally protected activity (see 1969 hate crime law). On April 2009, the House of Representatives passed H.R.1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, which would define hate crimes in federal law to include gender, sexual orientation, gender-identity, and disability. The legislation would also remove the prerequisite that victims of hate crimes be engaging in a federally protected activity (see Matthew Shepard Act
). On July 16, 2009, the US Senate also passed a Hate Crimes bill, originally S.909, as an amendment to the 2009 Defense Appropriations bill. On October 8, 2009, the House of Representatives voted 281 to 146 to approve the Conference Report Department of Defense Authorization, which contained the hate crimes provisions. On October 22, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted 68 to 29 to approve the Conference Report Department of Defense Authorization, which contained the hate crimes provisions. On October 28, 2009 President Obama signed the bill into law.
The DOJ
/FBI
, as well as campus security authorities, are required to collect and publish hate crime statistics (see Hate Crime Statistics Act and Campus Hate Crimes Right to Know Act).
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation (the exceptions are AR
, GA
, IN
, SC
, and WY
). Each of these statutes covers bias on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity; 32 cover disability; 31 of them cover sexual orientation; 28 cover gender; 13 cover age; 13 cover transgender/gender-identity; 5 cover political affiliation. 31 states and the District of Columbia have statutes creating a civil cause of action
, in addition to the criminal penalty, for similar acts. 27 states and the District of Columbia have statutes requiring the state to collect hate crime statistics; 16 of these cover sexual orientation.
In Wisconsin v. Mitchell
(1993) the Supreme Court
unanimously held that state penalty-enhancement laws for hate crimes were constitutional and did not violate First Amendment
rights to freedom of thought and expression.
in San Diego. DeKoven cited the examples of the European Court of Human Rights
as a model. New York University Professor and lawyer Jacob Appel
was the first pundit to champion such a cause in a mainstream media outlet. However, such proposals remain highly controversial.
In March 1956, a Federal District Court ruled that ONE: The Homosexual Magazine, was obscene under the Federal Comstock laws and thus could not be sent through the United States Postal Service. This ruling was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but in 1958, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a landmark ruling in One, Inc. v. Olesen
, 355 U.S. 371, which overturned the previous rulings under a new legal precedent that had been established by the landmark case, Roth v. United States
, 354 U.S. 476 (1957). As a result, gay newspapers, magazines and other publications could be lawfully distributed through the public mail service.
On May 22, 1967, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which among other things banned homosexuals, as constitutional. This ban remained in effect until 1991.
In 1972, a Tacoma, Washington
teacher of twelve years with a perfect record was terminated after a former student outed
him to the vice-principal. The Washington Supreme Court
found that homosexuality was immoral and impaired his efficiency as a teacher. The court supported its conclusion in various ways, including the definition of homosexuality in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the criminal nature of homosexual conduct, and finding that an "immoral" person could not be trusted to instruct students as his presence would be inherently disruptive. On October 3, 1977, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, although Justices Brennan and Marshall would have granted cert. This was the first homosexual discrimination decision to be aired on national network news. In fact, it was simultaneously aired on all three national network evening news shows, reaching approximately 60 million viewers.
In 1985, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University
, letting stand an appellate ruling ordering the university to provide official recognition of a student organization for homosexual students. The case set a national precedent by removing legal restrictions against gay rights groups on college campuses.
On June 30, 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Bowers v. Hardwick
, that homosexual sex was not protected under the right to privacy.
On May 20, 1996, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Romer v. Evans
against an amendment to the Colorado state constitution that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect homosexual or bisexual citizens from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.
On March 4, 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services
that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment
also applied when both parties are the same sex. The lower courts, however, have reached differing conclusions about whether this ruling applies to harassment motivated by anti-gay animus.
On June 28, 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Boy Scouts of America
had a First Amendment right to exclude people from its organization on the basis of sexual orientation
, irrespective of any applicable civil rights laws.
On June 26, 2003, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas
that laws against sodomy
or anal sex
cannot be directed at homosexuals alone, and furthermore, that intimate consensual sexual conduct is part of the liberty protected by substantive due process
under the Fourteenth Amendment
. The majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy
, explicitly overruled Bowers v. Hardwick. Despite this ruling, some states have kept their existing sodomy laws on the books, and local police have sometimes used these statutes to harrass or arrest gay people, even though charges are later dropped.
. Conservative Christians cite various Bible passages from the Old and New Testaments as their justification for opposing gay rights. Regionally, opposition to the gay rights movement has been strongest in the South
and in other states with a large rural
population.
As the movement for same-sex marriage has developed, many national and/or international organizations have opposed that movement. Those organizations include the American Family Association
,
the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council
, Focus on the Family
, Save Our Children
, NARTH, the national Republican Party
, the Roman Catholic Church
, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
,
the Southern Baptist Convention
, Alliance for Marriage
, Alliance Defense Fund
, Liberty Counsel
, Westboro Baptist Church
, and the National Organization for Marriage
. A number of these groups have been named as anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center
.
has close ties to the Christian right
and thus tends to oppose gay rights legislation, as does its national party platform. However, there are some variations among individual politicians, i.e., a Democrat in a more rural district is less likely to support gay rights, while a Republican in a more urban district may be more likely to support gay rights. For example, former senator
Barry Goldwater
, a conservative Republican, had expressed strong support for gay rights; he said gays should be allowed in the military, etc. Similarly, Rudy Giuliani
, also a noted Republican, does support civil unions and other forms of gay rights. Post vice-presidency, Dick Cheney
who is a conservative has come out in support of same-sex marriage, as his daughter Mary Cheney
is openly gay. On the other hand, President Barack Obama
, a Democrat, supports civil unions while opposing same-sex marriage. The former chairman of the Democratic Party and former governor of Virginia Tim Kaine
banned same-sex marriage in Virginia and supported a law that only a married couple could adopt children.
On November 15, 1989, Democratic Massachusetts Governor Dukakis signed the Gay Rights Bill into law. Massachusetts became the second state, after Wisconsin, to pass such a bill.
Today, active minor political parties have wide-ranging views on gay rights. The Libertarian Party has endorsed libertarian perspectives on LGBT rights since it was created in 1971, and the Green Party
also has endorsed gay rights since it was created in the 1980s. While many American socialist
and communist
political parties initially preferred to ignore the issue, most support gay rights causes. The Socialist Party USA
was the first party to nominate an openly gay man, David McReynolds
, as its Presidential candidate in 1980. The Constitution Party
strongly opposes gay rights and is tied to Christian Reconstructionism
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
since 2003, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by proxy, invalidated sodomy laws in the thirteen other states where they remained in existence, thereby making same-sex sexual activity legal in...
.
Family, marriage, and anti-discrimination laws vary by state. Six states plus Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
currently offer marriage to same-sex couples
Same-sex marriage in the United States
The federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage in the United States, but such marriages are recognized by some individual states. The lack of federal recognition was codified in 1996 by the Defense of Marriage Act, before Massachusetts became the first state to grant marriage licenses...
. Maryland does not offer same-sex marriages but does recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Additionally, some states offer civil unions
Civil union in the United States
A civil union is a legally recognized union similar to marriage. Many people are critical of civil unions because they say they represent separate status unequal to marriage...
or other types of recognition which offer some of the legal benefits and protections of marriage.
Twenty-one states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, and fifteen states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
or expression. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
or gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
are also punishable by federal law under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
Adoption policies in regards to gay and lesbian parents also vary greatly from state to state. Some allow adoption by same-sex couples, while others ban all "unmarried couples" from adoption.
Civil rights laws
Owing to the United States' federalFederalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
system and the diversity in attitudes toward LGBT rights, the status of LGBT civil rights in the U.S. is at present a patchwork. At the federal level, there is no recognition of same-sex unions and no laws forbidding employment discrimination against LGBT persons. Some states have enacted such laws, however.
Family law
Judicial history
In 1972, the Supreme Court of Minnesota in Baker v. NelsonBaker v. Nelson
Richard John Baker v. Gerald R. Nelson was a case in which the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Minnesota law limited marriage to different-sex couples and that this limitation did not violate the United States Constitution...
ruled that it did not violate the federal Constitution for a state to deny a civil marriage license to a same-sex couple. The controversy over same-sex marriage was revived in 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the state constitutional ban on sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
discrimination meant that same-sex couples were entitled to a civil marriage license unless the state could prove a compelling state interest. A lower court in Hawaii then found that the state had failed to show such a compelling interest, and same-sex marriage was legal in Hawaii for a day, before the judge stayed his ruling and the state constitution was amended in 1998 to allow the legislature to restrict marriage to different-sex couples.While the events in Hawaii did not actually lead to marriage rights for same-sex couples, they helped prompt the United States Congress to enact the Defense of Marriage Act
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act is a United States federal law whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no U.S. state may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state...
in 1996, which forbade the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions and permitted states to decide for themselves whether to recognize same-sex unions performed in other jurisdictions; until that point, there had been a controversy over whether states would be required to extend marriage rights to couples married in other states. The rights and responsibilities of marriage
Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States
According to the United States Government Accountability Office , there are 1,138 statutory provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges...
granted at the federal level, thus, do not apply to same-sex unions. Several states followed Congress and enacted similar laws denying recognition of marriage or other forms of union between two persons of the same sex.
The landmark case Braschi v. Stahl (74 N.Y.2d 201; 1989) redefined "family unit" in the State of New York. Miguel Braschi, brother of the prominent Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
, lived in a rent controlled apartment with his gay partner Leslie Blanchard. When Blanchard died, the landlord Stahl & Associates notified Braschi that he was to be evicted because his name was not on the lease. The Trial Court found that that the long-term interdependent nature of the 10-year relationship between the two men "fulfills any definitional criteria of the term 'family.'" The Appellate Court reversed; Braschi appealed. The New York Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Court and granted the injunction to Braschi. The New York Supreme Court noted that the term family was not defined in the Statute, and there was no specific reference in the legislative history to the noneviction provision.
Legislative history
In 1999, the Vermont State Supreme Court ruled in Baker v. VermontBaker v. Vermont
Baker v. Vermont, 744 A.2d 864 , was handed down on December 20, 1999 by the Vermont Supreme Court. The decision represented one of the first high-level judicial affirmations of same-sex couples' right to treatment equivalent to that of traditionally married couples...
that the state had to offer the benefits and responsibilities of civil marriage to same-sex couples, and thus the state legislature enacted a civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s bill. In 2007, the legislature introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill passed in 2009 but was vetoed by the governor. However, the legislature overrode the veto, and the law became effective on September 1, 2009.
In 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Court, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 , was a landmark state appellate court case dealing with same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S...
, legalized same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Massachusetts began on May 17, 2004, as a result of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only heterosexual couples to marry...
in Massachusetts.
In 2007 a similar decision in Iowa
Same-sex marriage in Iowa
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Iowa became legal on April 3, 2009.Iowa's first dealings with same-sex marriage came in 1998, after recent court cases on same-sex unions, starting in Hawaii, found that denying the right to marry to same-sex couples was incompatible with the Equal Protection...
ruled that restriction of marriage to opposite-sex couples was discriminatory. The decision was stayed to allow the state to appeal, although not before one same-sex couple had been issued a marriage license. In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court
Iowa Supreme Court
The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. As constitutional head of the Iowa Judicial Branch, the Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices....
unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling and marriage licenses to same-sex couples became available on April 24, 2009.
In May 2009, Maine passed a marriage equality law
Same-sex marriage in Maine
Same-sex marriage in Maine is currently unrecognized. A bill to allow same-sex marriages in Maine was signed into law on May 6, 2009, by Governor Baldacci following legislative approval, but opponents successfully petitioned for a referendum on the issue, putting the law on hold before it went into...
. Same-sex marriage opponents placed a referendum to repeal the law on the November ballot and were successful in their repeal bid.
In 2010, Washington, D. C. legislatively enacted marriage equality in the district.
In 2011, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
legalized same-sex marriages.
These state court opinions prompted calls for a Federal Marriage Amendment
Federal Marriage Amendment
The Federal Marriage Amendment H.J. Res. 56 was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would have limited marriage in the United States to unions of one man and one woman...
, along with state amendments to ensure that courts would not change the civil definition of marriage. As of 2007, the legal options available to same-sex couples depend on what state they reside in.
Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
(1997), California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(1999), Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
(2004), Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
(2005), New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
(2007), Washington (2007), Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
(2008), Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
(2008), Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
(2009), Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
(2009), Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
(2009), Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
(2011), Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
(2011) and Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
(2012) have either civil unions or more limited domestic partnership
Domestic partnership
A domestic partnership is a legal or personal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union...
options for same-sex couples.
State constitutional amendments
However, a backlash of these efforts was felt during the 2004 election cycle where fourteen states amended their constitution to ban recognition of same-sex marriages and often civil unions as well. MississippiMississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
voters amended their constitution, 86% to 14% – the largest margin in any state – to ban same-sex marriage and to prohibit the state from recognizing same-sex marriages that are legal elsewhere. Laws in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, the most far-reaching, forbids recognition of any benefits similar to those of marriage between people of the same sex.
State adoption laws
A single gay person or a same-sex couple can adoptAdoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
in some states, although there are fewer states where they may adopt children jointly with their partners.
Public opinion
A March 2011 public opinion poll by ABC News/Washington Post showed support for gay marriage at 53% among Americans, and a May 2011 Gallup opinion poll also showed 53% support for gay marriage among Americans. A May 2009 Gallup poll indicated 54% support for gays and lesbians being allowed to adopt children.Older polls showed that the nation could be divided into roughly equal thirds: one third supports gay marriage completely, another supports only civil unions, and the last is against any form of union entirely. However, in terms of attitudes to homosexuality, the United States can hardly be called one country. It is common for polls to show a clear majority support for gay marriage in Northeastern states, and occasionally (but less frequently), Pacific Coast states. States that have consistently shown a majority support for gay marriage for at least the past few years include Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and the capital, as well as (occasionally) Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. While the majority of these states do not (currently) have gay marriage, Iowa, which does have gay marriage, does not have majority support; in fact, polls place support in the high thirties or low forties (still slightly higher than the national average). In New York, meanwhile, where there is a pretty clear majority support (consistently reported as at least a four-point lead since 2005), marriage only became legal in the middle of 2011 (and previously there had been nothing, despite the clear public opinion favoring marriage continuously for at least 6 years). Nonetheless, Iowa falls into a second category of states, where the incoming voting generation overwhelmingly supports gay marriage: those under thirty have support placed in the sixties.
Military service
Openly lesbianLesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
members of the US military were previously subjected to the US's "Don't ask, don't tell
Don't ask, don't tell
"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...
" policy. However, on December 18, 2010, The U. S. Senate voted 65-31 in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010
The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 is a landmark federal statute that establishes a legal process for ending the Don't ask, don't tell policy , which since 1993 prevented openly gay and lesbian people from serving in the United States Armed Forces.The Act did not immediately repeal the...
permitting homosexual men and women to serve openly in the armed forces, to take effect 60 days after certification by the President, Secretary, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
signed the repeal on December 22, 2010. On July 22, 2011, President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panetta is the 23rd and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama since 2011. Prior to taking office, he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen
Michael Mullen
Michael Glenn "Mike" Mullen is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral, who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2011. Mullen previously served as the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations from July 22, 2005 to September 29, 2007...
certified that the military was ready for the repeal and that it would take place in 60 days. Repeal of the ban on gays in the military took effect September 20th, 2011. Gays and lesbians are now free to serve openly.
Employment
Employment discrimination
Employment discrimination is discrimination in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types of harassment....
refers to discriminatory employment practices such as bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation, and various types of harassment. In the United States
Employment discrimination law in the United States
In the United States, employment discrimination is prohibited by a collection of state and federal laws, as well as by ordinances of counties and municipalities. Only discrimination based on certain characteristics is illegal....
there is "very little statutory, common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
, and case law establishing employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation as a legal wrong." Some exceptions and alternative legal strategies are available. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's Executive Order 13087
Executive Order 13087
Executive Order 13087 was signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on May 28, 1998, amending Executive Order 11478 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce. The order also applies to employees of the government of the District...
(1998) prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce, and federal non-civil service employees may have recourse under the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Private sector workers may have a Title VII action under a quid pro quo sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
theory, a "hostile work environment" theory, a sexual stereotyping theory, or others.
Twenty-one states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
, the District of Columbia, and over 140 cities and counties have enacted such bans. The states banning sexual orientation discrimination in employment are California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, Washington
Washington House Bill 2661
Washington House Bill 2661 is a Washington state law which bans employment, insurance and housing discrimination against LGBT individuals, passed by the Washington State Legislature on January 27, 2006, and signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire four days later...
, and Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
(the first state to do so, in 1982). Four states have laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in public workplaces only: Indiana, Michigan, Montana, and Pennsylvania. On November 22, 2007, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm issued an order guarding the rights of transgender men and women. She prohibited discrimination of state workers based on gender identity or expression. Many of these laws also ban discrimination in other contexts, such as housing or public accommodation. A proposed bill to ban anti-gay employment discrimination nationwide, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is a proposed bill in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees.ENDA has been introduced in every...
(ENDA), has been introduced in the U.S. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, but its prospects of passage are not believed to be good under a Republican-controlled Congress.
Fifteen states plus the District of Columbia have reformed their state civil rights code by legislation or under the force of court decisions to include both sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
and gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
, while another six states have amended their civil rights code to include sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, but not gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
. Aside from state law, about a hundred cities in thirty three states have enacted civil rights legislation that includes sexual orientation.
Housing
Housing discriminationCivil Rights Act of 1968
On April 11, 1968 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, or as CRA '68, and was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
refers to discrimination against potential or current tenants by landlords. In the United States, there is no federal law against such discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but at least thirteen states and many major cities have enacted laws prohibiting it. See, for example, Washington House Bill 2661
Washington House Bill 2661
Washington House Bill 2661 is a Washington state law which bans employment, insurance and housing discrimination against LGBT individuals, passed by the Washington State Legislature on January 27, 2006, and signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire four days later...
.
Medical facilities
On April 14, 2011, President Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
issued an Executive Order
Executive order
An executive order in the United States is an order issued by the President, the head of the executive branch of the federal government. In other countries, similar edicts may be known as decrees, or orders in council. Executive orders may also be issued at the state level by a state's governor or...
to the Department of Health and Human Services to draft new rules for all hospitals accepting Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
or Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
funds. They would require facilities to grant visitation and medical decision-making rights to gay and lesbian partners, as well as designees of others such as widows and widowers. Such rights are not institutionalized in law in many states. Obama said he was inspired by the case of a Florida family, where one of the mothers died while her partner and four children were denied visitation by the hospital.
Hate crime laws
Matthew Shepard Act
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, is an American Act of Congress, passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, as a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010...
). On July 16, 2009, the US Senate also passed a Hate Crimes bill, originally S.909, as an amendment to the 2009 Defense Appropriations bill. On October 8, 2009, the House of Representatives voted 281 to 146 to approve the Conference Report Department of Defense Authorization, which contained the hate crimes provisions. On October 22, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted 68 to 29 to approve the Conference Report Department of Defense Authorization, which contained the hate crimes provisions. On October 28, 2009 President Obama signed the bill into law.
The DOJ
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
/FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, as well as campus security authorities, are required to collect and publish hate crime statistics (see Hate Crime Statistics Act and Campus Hate Crimes Right to Know Act).
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation (the exceptions are AR
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, GA
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, IN
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, SC
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and WY
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
). Each of these statutes covers bias on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity; 32 cover disability; 31 of them cover sexual orientation; 28 cover gender; 13 cover age; 13 cover transgender/gender-identity; 5 cover political affiliation. 31 states and the District of Columbia have statutes creating a civil cause of action
Legal liability
Legal liability is the legal bound obligation to pay debts.* In law a person is said to be legally liable when they are financially and legally responsible for something. Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law. See Strict liability. Under English law, with the passing of the Theft...
, in addition to the criminal penalty, for similar acts. 27 states and the District of Columbia have statutes requiring the state to collect hate crime statistics; 16 of these cover sexual orientation.
In Wisconsin v. Mitchell
Wisconsin v. Mitchell
Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U.S. 476 , was a decision of the United States Supreme Court. It was a landmark precedent pertaining to First Amendment free speech arguments for hate crime legislation...
(1993) the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
unanimously held that state penalty-enhancement laws for hate crimes were constitutional and did not violate First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights to freedom of thought and expression.
Reparations
Reparations for gays and lesbians in the United States were first proposed by Robert DeKoven, a professor at California Western School of LawCalifornia Western School of Law
California Western School of Law, founded in 1924, is a private, non-profit law school located in San Diego, California. It is popularly known as California Western or Cal Western and formerly California Western University. The school was approved by the American Bar Association in 1962 and became...
in San Diego. DeKoven cited the examples of the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
as a model. New York University Professor and lawyer Jacob Appel
Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
was the first pundit to champion such a cause in a mainstream media outlet. However, such proposals remain highly controversial.
Supreme Court decisions
One, Inc. v. Olesen
One, Inc. v. Olesen is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision for LGBT rights in the United States. ONE, Inc., a spinoff of the Mattachine Society, published the early pro-gay "ONE: The Homosexual Magazine" beginning in 1953. After a campaign of harassment from the U.S...
, 355 U.S. 371, which overturned the previous rulings under a new legal precedent that had been established by the landmark case, Roth v. United States
Roth v. United States
Roth v. United States, , along with its companion case, Alberts v. California, was a landmark case before the United States Supreme Court which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes obscene material unprotected by the First Amendment.- Prior history :Under the common...
, 354 U.S. 476 (1957). As a result, gay newspapers, magazines and other publications could be lawfully distributed through the public mail service.
On May 22, 1967, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which among other things banned homosexuals, as constitutional. This ban remained in effect until 1991.
In 1972, a Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
teacher of twelve years with a perfect record was terminated after a former student outed
Outing
Outing is the act of disclosing a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person's true sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good in efforts...
him to the vice-principal. The Washington Supreme Court
Washington Supreme Court
The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the U.S. state of Washington. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Justices. of the Court are elected to six-year terms...
found that homosexuality was immoral and impaired his efficiency as a teacher. The court supported its conclusion in various ways, including the definition of homosexuality in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the criminal nature of homosexual conduct, and finding that an "immoral" person could not be trusted to instruct students as his presence would be inherently disruptive. On October 3, 1977, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, although Justices Brennan and Marshall would have granted cert. This was the first homosexual discrimination decision to be aired on national network news. In fact, it was simultaneously aired on all three national network evening news shows, reaching approximately 60 million viewers.
In 1985, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University
Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University
Gay Student Services v. Texas A&M University, 737 F. 2d 1317 is a court case in which the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the First Amendment required public universities to recognize student organizations aimed at gay students...
, letting stand an appellate ruling ordering the university to provide official recognition of a student organization for homosexual students. The case set a national precedent by removing legal restrictions against gay rights groups on college campuses.
On June 30, 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick, , is a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld, in a 5-4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals. Seventeen years after Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court...
, that homosexual sex was not protected under the right to privacy.
On May 20, 1996, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Romer v. Evans
Romer v. Evans
Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court case dealing with civil rights and state laws. It was the first Supreme Court case to deal with LGBT rights since Bowers v...
against an amendment to the Colorado state constitution that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect homosexual or bisexual citizens from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.
On March 4, 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, , was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The case arose out of a suit for sex discrimination by a male oil-rig worker, who claimed that he was repeatedly subjected to sexual harassment by his male co-workers with the acquiescence of his...
that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
also applied when both parties are the same sex. The lower courts, however, have reached differing conclusions about whether this ruling applies to harassment motivated by anti-gay animus.
On June 28, 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
had a First Amendment right to exclude people from its organization on the basis of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, irrespective of any applicable civil rights laws.
On June 26, 2003, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by proxy, invalidated sodomy laws in the thirteen other states where they remained in existence, thereby making same-sex sexual activity legal in...
that laws against sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
or anal sex
Anal sex
Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...
cannot be directed at homosexuals alone, and furthermore, that intimate consensual sexual conduct is part of the liberty protected by substantive due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
under the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
. The majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy
Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Since the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennedy has often been the swing vote on many of the Court's politically charged 5–4 decisions...
, explicitly overruled Bowers v. Hardwick. Despite this ruling, some states have kept their existing sodomy laws on the books, and local police have sometimes used these statutes to harrass or arrest gay people, even though charges are later dropped.
Opposition
The main opponents of gay rights in the U.S. have generally been political and religious conservativesConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
. Conservative Christians cite various Bible passages from the Old and New Testaments as their justification for opposing gay rights. Regionally, opposition to the gay rights movement has been strongest in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
and in other states with a large rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
population.
As the movement for same-sex marriage has developed, many national and/or international organizations have opposed that movement. Those organizations include the American Family Association
American Family Association
The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
,
the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council
Family Research Council
The Family Research Council is a conservative or right-wing Christian group and lobbying organization formed in the United States in 1981 by James Dobson. It was fully incorporated in 1983...
, Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
, Save Our Children
Save Our Children
Save Our Children, Inc. was a political coalition formed in 1977 in Miami, Florida, U.S. to overturn a recently legislated county ordinance that banned discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexual orientation...
, NARTH, the national Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
Homosexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Homosexual acts are prohibited by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Law of Chastity, as well as other sexual acts outside the bonds of marriage. Violating the Law of Chastity may result in excommunication...
,
the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
, Alliance for Marriage
Alliance for Marriage
The Alliance for Marriage , founded in 1999, is a non-profit organization based in the United States. The organization describes itself as "dedicated to promoting marriage and addressing the epidemic of fatherless families in the United States." The group was founded by Matt Daniels and is...
, Alliance Defense Fund
Alliance Defense Fund
The Alliance Defense Fund is a conservative Christian nonprofit organization with the stated goal of "defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation." ADF was founded in 1994 by the late Bill Bright , the late Larry Burkett , James Dobson The...
, Liberty Counsel
Liberty Counsel
Liberty Counsel is a non-profit public interest law firm and ministry that provides free legal assistance in defense of "Christian religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the traditional family." Liberty Counsel is headed by attorney Mathew D. Staver, who founded the legal ministry with...
, Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...
, and the National Organization for Marriage
National Organization for Marriage
The National Organization for Marriage is a nonprofit political association established in 2007 to work against legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, specifically to pass California Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage in California...
. A number of these groups have been named as anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
.
U.S. political parties
Among the two major parties, the Democratic Party has endorsed some gay rights legislation in its national party platform since the 1980s. The Republican PartyRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
has close ties to the Christian right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
and thus tends to oppose gay rights legislation, as does its national party platform. However, there are some variations among individual politicians, i.e., a Democrat in a more rural district is less likely to support gay rights, while a Republican in a more urban district may be more likely to support gay rights. For example, former senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
, a conservative Republican, had expressed strong support for gay rights; he said gays should be allowed in the military, etc. Similarly, Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
, also a noted Republican, does support civil unions and other forms of gay rights. Post vice-presidency, Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
who is a conservative has come out in support of same-sex marriage, as his daughter Mary Cheney
Mary Cheney
Mary Claire Cheney is the second daughter of Dick Cheney, the former Vice President of the United States, and his wife, Lynne Cheney. She is openly lesbian, has voiced support for same-sex marriage, and has been credited with encouraging her father to support same-sex marriage as well...
is openly gay. On the other hand, President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, a Democrat, supports civil unions while opposing same-sex marriage. The former chairman of the Democratic Party and former governor of Virginia Tim Kaine
Tim Kaine
Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine is a Virginia politician. Kaine served as the 70th Governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, and was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011...
banned same-sex marriage in Virginia and supported a law that only a married couple could adopt children.
On November 15, 1989, Democratic Massachusetts Governor Dukakis signed the Gay Rights Bill into law. Massachusetts became the second state, after Wisconsin, to pass such a bill.
Today, active minor political parties have wide-ranging views on gay rights. The Libertarian Party has endorsed libertarian perspectives on LGBT rights since it was created in 1971, and the Green Party
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
also has endorsed gay rights since it was created in the 1980s. While many American socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
political parties initially preferred to ignore the issue, most support gay rights causes. The Socialist Party USA
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...
was the first party to nominate an openly gay man, David McReynolds
David McReynolds
David McReynolds is an American democratic socialist and pacifist activist who described himself as "a peace movement bureaucrat" during his 40-year career with Liberation magazine and the War Resisters League...
, as its Presidential candidate in 1980. The Constitution Party
Constitution Party (United States)
The Constitution Party is a paleoconservative political party in the United States. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party by Howard Philips in 1991. Phillips was the party's candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections...
strongly opposes gay rights and is tied to Christian Reconstructionism
Christian Reconstructionism
Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and theological movement within Evangelical Christianity that calls for Christians to put their faith into action in all areas of life, within the private sphere of life and the public and political sphere as well...
.
See also
- Civil union in the United StatesCivil union in the United StatesA civil union is a legally recognized union similar to marriage. Many people are critical of civil unions because they say they represent separate status unequal to marriage...
- Domestic partnership in the United States
- Don't ask, don't tellDon't ask, don't tell"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...
- Employment Non-Discrimination ActEmployment Non-Discrimination ActThe Employment Non-Discrimination Act is a proposed bill in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees.ENDA has been introduced in every...
- Empowering Spirits FoundationEmpowering Spirits FoundationThe Empowering Spirits Foundation , Inc. is a national non-profit, non-partisan lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization in the United States...
- Gay Blue Jeans DayGay Blue Jeans DayGay Blue Jeans Day, alternatively National Gay Blue Jeans Day or just Gay Jeans Day is a celebration frequently advertised on college campuses in the United States in coordination with World AIDS Day, Gay Equality Day, Gay Pride Week, or National Coming Out Day...
- History of violence against LGBT people in the United StatesHistory of violence against LGBT people in the United StatesThe history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex individuals , legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America...
- Homosexuality and Citizenship in FloridaHomosexuality and Citizenship in FloridaHomosexuality and Citizenship in Florida, also known as the Purple Pamphlet, was published in January 1964 by the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee of the Florida legislature led by Senator Charley Johns. The booklet contained several pornographic images and a glossary of terminology used...
— anti-gay pamphlet published by the Florida Legislative Investigation CommitteeFlorida Legislative Investigation CommitteeThe Florida Legislative Investigation Committee was established by the Florida Legislature in 1956, during the era of the Second Red Scare and the Lavender Scare...
in 1964 - Human Rights CampaignHuman Rights CampaignThe Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
- Human rights in the United StatesHuman rights in the United StatesHuman rights in the United States are legally protected by the Constitution of the United States and amendments, conferred by treaty, and enacted legislatively through Congress, state legislatures, and plebiscites...
- Legal aspects of transsexualism in the United StatesLegal aspects of transsexualism in the United States-Laws:States make their own laws about birth certificates and marriage, and state courts have varied in their application of such laws to transgendered people. Several courts have come to the conclusion that sex reassignments are not recognized for the purpose of marriage, including courts in Ohio,...
- LGBT adoption
- LGBT movements in the United StatesLGBT movements in the United StatesLGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social and political movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century...
- LGBT rights by country or territory
- LGBT rights in the AmericasLGBT rights in the AmericasLesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights are complex in the Americas. The British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonists, who settled most of the Americas, brought Christianity from Europe...
- List of proposed anti-gay book bans in the United States
- List of US ballot initiatives to repeal LGBT anti-discrimination laws
- Log Cabin RepublicansLog Cabin RepublicansThe Log Cabin Republicans is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians in the United States with state chapters and a national office in Washington, D.C...
- National Stonewall Democrats
- Same-sex marriage law in the United States by state
- Save Our ChildrenSave Our ChildrenSave Our Children, Inc. was a political coalition formed in 1977 in Miami, Florida, U.S. to overturn a recently legislated county ordinance that banned discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexual orientation...
- 1977-78 anti-gay campaign in Florida led by Anita BryantAnita BryantAnita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
External links
- WhiteHouse.gov: Civil Rights — includes section on LGBT rights
- A Look at the State of the Gay Rights Movement – video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...