Public Policy & Legislation
Currently six states—Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire—have legally instituted marriage equality. On April 7th, 2009, Vermont became the first state to recognize marriage equality through a vote in the state legislature rather than the courts, and Maine and New Hampshire have followed suit.
New York, Rhode Island, New Mexico and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
In 2008, voters in California, Arizona and Florida passed restrictive legislation that writes marriage discrimination into the constitution. Arkansas voters also passed legislation to restrict the adoption rights of same sex couples.
Learn more about Unitarian Universalist involvement across the nation in the struggle for marriage equality.
Marriage Equality in California
Equality California
"In an historic decision on May 15, 2008 the California Supreme Court ruled that same-gender couples deserve the freedom to marry under state law. The landmark ruling makes California the first state in the nation to give lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people full equality."
After the California Supreme Court granted full legal marriage rights to same gender couples, an anti-gay marriage proposition made it to the November ballot. The amendment passed with a 52% vote in favor. The amendment will change the Constitution to only recognize "marriage between a man and a woman." The amendment will also nullify the California Supreme Court decision and prevent the California legislature from passing legislation in favor of marriage equality as they did in 2005 and 2007.
In response to the passage of this ballot measure called Proposition 8, which changed the Constitution in California, the UUA, along with the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of California (UULM-CA), the California Council of Churches, and other religious leaders and faith organizations, filed an amicus curiae brief (PDF, 56 pages) with the California Supreme Court on January 14, 2009, asking the court to invalidate Proposition 8. The brief argued that Proposition 8 threatened the guarantee of equal protection for all and was not enacted through the constitutionally required process for such a dramatic change to the California Constitution.
On May 26th, 2009, the courts released their decision allowing Proposition 8 to stand. The ruling preserves the status of the18, 000 same sex marriages performed in California between May and November of 2008, but does not allow any more same sex couples to get married. Read more about the Unitarian Universalist responses to this ruling in California and around the country. Unitarian Universalists will continue in the work for full and equal access to civil marriage for all people.
For more information contact la_bglt @ uua.org.
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Last updated on Thursday, July 21, 2011.
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