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Caden Matthews

Steve Caudill

H106

17 May, 2020

The Fight for Marriage Equality

In 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. This happened

over 200 years after the founding of the country. This begs the question, why did it take so long?

Approximately 4.5% of adult Americans identify as LGBT; this means that prior to 2015, about

5% of the population could not be legally married to who they wanted to be married to. It should

also be of note that this 4.5% is an understatement as several people who may be homosexual do

not disclose this information. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights provides

various pieces of information about the LGBT movement. In particular, they have an article

about the Stonewall Riots. This article is somewhat dated, being written in 2009, but this does

not discredit it as the Stonewall Riots happened in 1969, so no significant new information

would be gathered from 2009 to today. ​The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act of 1993

can be found on Congress’s official website, www.congress.gov. This website is reliable as ​The

Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act of 1993 ​came from Congress, so their website would

have the most accurate version of the act. Oyez is a website that contains various information

about the Supreme Court. This includes the justices and the cases. The two cases on Oyez most

pertinent to this paper are ​United States v. Windsor​ and ​Obergefell v. Hodges​. Oyez provides

much information about these cases including recordings of oral arguments, the Opinion of the

Court as well as several dissenting opinions, background about the case, how the votes were
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split, and the conclusion the Supreme Court came to. This establishes Oyez as a reliable source.

These sources all provide information about major events that were influential in the

establishment of equality based on sexual orientation. Equality for homosexuals in today’s

society is unmistakably present, yet this was not always the case; there were several monumental

events throughout American history that pushed us toward being a country in which one can not

be persecuted for their sexual orientation.

Homophobia has been present within America for a considerable amount of time. One of

the main sources of homophobia is religion. The dominant religion in the United States of

America is Christianity. Christianity can be and has been used to justify prejudices. During the

time of slavery in America, slave owners would use Bible verses to justify their slavery.

Similarly, Bible verses can be used to justify homophobia. The most prevalent of these is

Leviticus 18:22 which states, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an

abomination.” Bible verses such as this one provide a religious foundation for prejudice against

homosexuals. Given that such a large part of the country has been Christian, the conclusion that

the battle for the legalization of same-sex marriage would be an arduous one is easily drawn.

Homophobia also was rampant during the Cold War. In the US Senate Committee Report from

December 15, 1950, titled ​The Lavender Scare​, it details the conjectured dangers of allowing

homosexuals, called “sex perverts,” to work in governmental positions. This drew a line between

communism about homosexuality. Given that the country was full of fear regarding communism,

one can see that when it was connected with homosexuality, it would not bode well for

homosexuals. During the Red Scare, the American public greatly feared communist danger from

both outside and inside the country. Joseph McCarthy, a senator at the time, would essentially
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call some a communist, with next to no proof. This act would completely ruin the careers of

whoever he targeted. This shows how fearful the public was of communists; just the mere act of

being accused as one can ruin one’s livelihood. Several senators viewed this as an opportunity to

advance their anti-homosexual agendas. Claiming that homosexuals in governmental positions

were security risks to the country. This baseless claim resulted in the destruction of thousands of

American livelihoods. A more recent example of homophobia within the government is Bill

Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy from 1994. This made it so that homosexuals could not

join the armed forces. However, if they were closeted, one could not goad them about it. Hence

the name, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” However, this policy was eventually repealed under the

Obama Administration in 2010. Another rather recent example of homophobia is found in the

HIV epidemic starting in the 1980s. While the disease spread rapidly through various

homosexual populations, overly associating any disease with a group of people is bound to end

poorly. During the Black Death plague in the 1300s, many people blamed Jews for the disease.

This led to various massacres of Jewish people who in actuality had nothing to do with the

disease. Relating homosexuals, a group that is already looked at with a somewhat negative

stigma, to a disease, only serves to further stigmatize them. With all of these examples of

homophobia, it is clear that we had to do something, and all it took was one event to kickstart the

push for LGBT rights.

On the 28th of June, 1969, police begin a raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New

York City. The police of New York City were known for targeting gay clubs, and during this

particular raid, the people decided that they had had enough of it. The people in the bar, as well

as other passersby began rioting against the police. They threw various items at the police,
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including beer bottles. The Stonewall Riots sparked various other protests both within New York

City and across the country. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights states,

“...​the event [is] largely regarded as a catalyst for the LGBT movement for civil rights in the

United States.” One year after the Stonewall Riots, a parade was held in commemoration; this

was the first gay pride parade. The Stonewall Riots later cemented the month of June as Pride

Month. This was a large step for the LGBT community.

Another major milestone, ​The​ ​Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act of 1993,​ was

passed by the House of Representatives 24 years after the Stonewall Riots. While the bill isn’t

solely for homosexuals, it does include them. Before getting into the details of the act, what a

hate crime is must be explained. The dictionary defines a hate crime as “a crime, typically one

involving violence, that is motivated by prejudice on the basis of race, religion, sexual

orientation, or other grounds.” This essentially means that a hate crime is a crime primarily

committed due to a characteristic of the victim. ​The​ ​Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act of

1993​ states, “...the United States Sentencing Commission shall promulgate guidelines or amend

existing guidelines to provide sentencing enhancements of not less than 3 offense levels for

offenses that the finder of fact at trial determines beyond a reasonable doubt are hate crimes.”

This makes it so that a hate crime has a stronger sentence than the same crime committed for a

non-prejudiced reason. This provides some extra legal protection to homosexuals, as it is

discouraging criminals from specifically targeting homosexuals.

Major progress for same-sex marriage took place in the 2010s. In 2009, Thea Clara

Spyer, wife of Edith Windsor passed away. The marriage of these two women was recognized by

New York, but not the federal government. This is because of ​The Defense of Marriage Act
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(DOMA) which was enacted in the year 1996. DOMA defined marriage as the legal union of

man and woman; this clearly excludes homosexuals. Because of the fact that the marriage of

Windsor and Spyer wa​s not recognized by federal law, hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxes

were imposed on the inheritance of Spyer’s estate. Windsor claimed that DOMA was

unconstitutional. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court and is known as ​United States

v. Windsor.​ Oyez states, “The result is that DOMA denies same-sex couples the rights that come

from federal recognition of marriage, which are available to other couples with legal marriages

under state law. The Court held that the purpose and effect of DOMA is to impose a

"disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma" on same-sex couples in violation of the Fifth

Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.” This decision was five to four with justices

Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan, Breyer, and Kennedy siding with Windsor and justices Roberts,

Scalia, Alito, and Thomas dissenting. This decision ​made it so that section 3 of DOMA was

deemed unconstitutional. This meant that marriage in the United States ​was no longer defined as

a union of man and woman. This enabled homosexual marriages to be recognized by the federal

government.

Two years later, in 2015, several same-sex couples described several states’ bans on

same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. Oyez states, “The plaintiffs in each case argued that the

states' statutes violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth

Amendment, and one group of plaintiffs also brought claims under the Civil Rights Act.” The

Equal Protection Clause contains the following text, “...No State shall make or enforce any law

which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any

State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
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person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” This case went to the Supreme

Court and is known as ​Obergefell v. Hodges​. The conclusion of the case was that the 14th

amendment requires states to license a same-sex marriage and recognize same-sex marriages that

were licensed in other states. This case was also five to four, with the same justices on the same

sides as ​United States v. Windsor.​ The consequence of this decision is that same-sex marriage

became legal in every state within the United States.

When looking at several other Supreme Court cases, over time one can see that more and

more states had legal same-sex marriage. This increase finally culminated with all 50 states in

Obergefell v. Hodges​. All of the aforementioned events together form a foundation for equal

rights for homosexuals. Even today, we continue to build on this foundation with new legislation

such as the Equality Act. The country is still becoming more progressive with human rights. If

one is to think about the stigma that used to be associated with interracial marriage, and then

look at today where it is barely an issue, one can see that the opposition to human rights slowly

fades away over time. This shows that there will most likely be a day in which same-sex

marriage is simply seen as normal, and the aforementioned events played a major role in

guarenteeing that this day will come.

Works Cited

“H.R.1152 - 103rd Congress (1993-1994): Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act of 1993.”

Congress.gov,​ 25 Mar. 1994, www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/1152.

“Obergefell v. Hodges.” ​Oyez,​ www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556. Accessed 16 May. 2020.

“Stonewall Riots: The Beginning of the LGBT Movement.” ​The Leadership Conference on Civil

and Human Rights​, Wide Eye, 22 June 2009,

civilrights.org/2009/06/22/stonewall-riots-the-beginning-of-the-lgbt-movement/.

“United States v. Windsor.” ​Oyez,​ www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-307. Accessed 16 May. 2020.