GLBT Awareness

This subject can be a very touchy to many. I believe that if two people love one another, then they should be able to legally marry one another, no matter if they are a man and woman, woman and woman, or man and man. I know there are those of you who will read this and automatically want to defend your position with the Bible. I urge you to, so that those of us who believe otherwise can defend our position as well.The institution of marriage has been in a state of flux for centuries. In the U.S., it has continually been redefined: bullet It was only after the civil war that African-Americans were allowed to marry in all areas of the U.S. bullet. Prior to and during 1967, at least sixteen states prohibited mixed race couples from marrying. Inter-racial marriage became legal throughout the U.S. after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in that year. bullet But, until recently, same-sex couples could not marry anywhere in the world.

This final restriction was lifted during 2001-APR, when The Netherlands expanded its definition of marriage to include both opposite-sex and same sex couples. Belgium followed suit during 2003-JAN. Next came Ontario, a province in Canada in 2003-JUN. By 2004-NOV, same-sex marriage had become available in most Canadian provinces. When federal law C-38 was signed into law on 2005-JUL-20, SSM theoretically became available across all of Canada. However Prince Edward Island ignored the civil rights of same-sex couples, and refused to issue marriage licenses to them for almost a month. The capitulated when threatened by a lawsuit. Spain passed a law allowing same-sex couples to marry on 2005-JUN-29. South Africa’s law came into effect on 2006-NOV-30.

As for the SSM here in the US, I know that Massachusetts has state level rights and benefits under marriage laws, to where NJ, NY, Vermont, and Connecticut allow Same-Sex Civil Unions (however NY recognizes out of state SSM), and then there is California and Oregon which has broad domestic partnership laws. Obviously, Massachusetts can be viewed as being the dominate state for same-sex marriages and with that every other state should fall into place.

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